full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Pere Estupinyà: The science of sex


Unscramble the Blue Letters


In fact, I'm a science disseminator out of curiosity, that exemrte curiosity in understanding the way nature works, our body, the universe, the brain, these 87 billion of interconnected neurons that encode this strange behavior we have, that we don't know if we should follow reason or feelings. Science, actually, gives us a different pepetsvcrie of the reality and opens up our minds and amazes us even in the most odrairny events. In fact, one of the most revolutionary days in my career as a science disseminator was at a neuroscience congress where, walking by the posrtes section, I read the following work: "Clitoral stimulation iuecnds Fos avtoatiicn in the rat brain." Sure, you keep snatirg at the poster and get closer to the researcher and say: "Do you stimulate the rats' cltirios?" (Laughter) "Yes, I do." "And how do you do it?" "With a brush; I do three or four repetitions and stop. Three or four repetitions and stop. Because that is the way rats copulate." I kept thinking and she noticed I was somewhat skeptical. And I said: "Hey, it is very important that we investigate the sexual function. We, scestnitis, investigate the complete functioning of the body, why aren't we going to research on sexuality?" I thought for a while, and it's true: after so much time wnikorg as a communicator, Why haven't I written about sexuality? Out of taboo? The same toabo society has about sex, is shared by medicine and science. But she said something very curious: "I study the hormones that encode desire. And I'm convinced about it because neurophysiologically, we are not that different from rats — and it's true; psychologically, yes; but neurophysiologically, no — I'm convinced that behind that there could also be an explanation for some male and flamee ieusss related to desire. There are many sexual problems." "More than you think," she told me. And I was weiondrng, is it true? I serhcaed for sniciftiec material, and, indeed, I found in "The Lancet," one of the greatest snciece magazines, data that show that approximately 40 percent of men and more than 50 percent of women, even excepting old age, at a certain moment will have a perlbom rltaeed to sexuality. Clearly, it was something I had to investigate about. And where to start? To see the researcher then and learn about all this hormone issue; testosterone and desire increase, dopamine and pleasure stimulation, prolactin and pleasure decrease, ocotyxin segregated after orgasm is the love hormone keeping us together, but also, let's see something — I teach you right now because, surely, you have never seen it before — (luateghr) clitorial stimulation of rats. It's cuuiros, because a lot of people say: "I had no idea rats had clitoris." And some women say: "Well, there are some men that seem to ignore women have it too!! (Laughter) But many of us don't know — I didn't know it, at least when I started this rcaesreh — is that clitoris is much bigger than we think. It is internal, in most of the cases; on the exterior, the glans is like the tip of the iceberg Actually, these images you see in grey, with a triangular shpae, is the internal part of the clitoris, it is like a penis, that gwros inside, has an erection and it is so big that gets closer to the front wall of the vagina and sometimes, you've heard about G spot... the G spot none of you know about; you know it's a spot that generates more sexual arousal, but you don't know why. It is because the clitoris gets so close to the vagina that when you touch 2 to 3 centimeters upwards, you get in contact with its internal part, and, at that menmot, pleasure increases. But truly, what is an osragm? Orgasm, physiologically, is the activation of the sympathetic nervous system. That is, to experience sexual arousal, to be normal, we have a parasympathetic nervous system which keeps us relaxed. But during sexual arousal there is a moment of explosion when the pupils dilate, the blood flows to the muscles, a seeris of secretions are released in the body that activate this orgasmic response. A piece of advice: for example, now you know this, if you are having sexual intercourse and someone gronas with pleasure, but pupils are not dilated, there is no tahdciycraa, or no blushing of the upper part of the chest or cinhs, that person may be faking it. It's really important to know that, because these shapimyttec nerves retaluge the cnimog of the orgasm. For example, when someone is nervous and has the fibers excited, has premature ejaculation. Or when wine relaxes us, if we drink a lot of wine that slwos down the sympathetic nreovus system, women, particularly, take legnor to reach orgasm. Or dominance and smsisoubin that geneatre tension in the body and facilitate orgasm. Or the tnatra, that wonderful seipces of sxuael behavior that allows the body to feel rlexaed and etiexcd at the same time and entirely sstievine. I had to move a step forward, because eventually, when we talk about orgasm, people say: "Yes, they are clitoral or vaginal orgasms." Actually, they are all brain orgasms. The order to begin orgasm comes from the brain. I ierweenitvd Barry koisamurk. Barry Komisaruk is a researcher of the Rutgers uiertvnsiy who asked women to stimulate different areas of their genitals to see which areas of their brains were activated in order to study the sexual response. It was really interesting, because he even saw different tpeys of orgasms. If you haven't felt different kind of orgasms it means you haven't experienced enough. Because they are real, different nerves send the information from the internal part of the vagina, from the external part, so it is worth the exploration. But Barry told me something. He said: "I'm going to start a research with men. Would you like to be a volunteer?" And my first answer was: "No." And I realized this social rratsien we have regarding sex. I had taken part in a lot of studies; why did I repressed myself from participation on a study on steuxaliy? So then I rebelled, and became the first man in the world having an orgasm under a functional magnetic rneoancse imaging scan (Laughter) (Applause) And this is my brain from the beginning of the stuiitlmaon to the end, and it was iinttesenrg as it perceived the areas that started; the limbic system, the hypothalamus, the cortex. Well, in fact, a part of the brian cortex related to control, is the only one off during orgasm. All the rest of the brain was... is the activity that activates most areas of the brain at the same time; except for this cetrox. And it was fantastic, 20 scdoens later, the brain was completely off. And it is very similar to what hpapeend with women. Actually, the scans were the same; men and women. Men and women are more alike than we believe. There is much more diversity within the men group and within the wemon group, than in the opposite sex cases. But this takes place when we move forward and take the psychological part and here comes the complexity, because sexuality, indeed, has an endocrine, physiological, neuroscientific, psychological and cultural side. And now, one of the most peculiar cases is the attraction. Why are we attracted to a certain person and not to another? Surely there is a biological aspect. It's said the symmetry is a beauty trait. Surely, there's a cultural part: in a culture, we like ones and others. But through experiments you realize that even, the emotional part palys a relevnat role. When we are sad, we don't like the same people than when we are hpapy. When you go to a party and feel the most attractive woman there, you'll cchek out certain kind of guys. If you are not that self confident, and see other women you consider prettier, you will check out other guys. Even hunger affects your cceohis. And this is a very funny experiment. Half of the students were asked to come to the experiment satisfied, after having eetan a lot. They had no idea. And other students came hungry, with a 10 hours fast. They were shown these iegmas of the same girl, but they distorted her shape from a smimelr to a more plump body. And you know what? They were asked which they liked best. and the hungry gruop liked more plump figures. Our inner eniotomal sttae conditions our likes in each moment. Talking about atartctoin, there is a very important issue. If I tell you, we should rceespt any sexual diversity it's rather ooiubvs. A lot more pelpoe say so. But, I had a question from a scientific pniot of view which is valid from that approach. Can the sexual orientation be changed? It's abusrd, we know that, to ask people to try to change their nature, but, is it possible? And I ran into this scientific stduy from 1968 where it was intended, through electroshocks, and aversive chemical therapy, when they were watching homosexual images, to change gays' sexual orientation. And I interviewed, since he's still alive, the author, John Bancroft, once the director of Kings Institute. You know what he said? It was quite renievlag. He said, "We, at that time — now we know it's atrocious — but we thought we were doing them a faovr, because at that time, homosexuality was not approved and they suffered a lot and we thought we could change them. You know what? Despite their intentions, and electroshocks, aversive therapy, they didn't canghe. And the ones who tried it, bore a great sfniurefg for not changing. So, the conclusion is pretty obvious: the ones to be cured are not homosexuals. The ones are homophobes. (Applause) We... (Applause) Thank you. (Applause) It is essential to accept diversity and we have to be the first ones to accept it. For instance, each psroen lives sexuality as desired. Kiko is a boy who uses a wheelchair. And has no sensitivity in his genitals. I'm treated as if I were asexual; as if I had no desire, and of course I have it, of course I get aroused, and of course I have a different sexuality." Actually, Kiko is a very sexual person, who has his partners. Opposite to Rebeca; she is asexual and has no desire. She has never felt desire; not even as a teenager, and she doesn't feel attracted to anybody either, neither boys nor girls. This is claeld an asexual person. And Rebeca told me: "And you know what? I'm really happy." But the key is not about having more or less sex, it's about having the sex quantity and quality you want. That's the important thing. Then, we get into this scientific-sexual adventure into something even more complicated. The couple; it's not about one but two. And here there is a constant interplay between nature and culture. Because if we look at our naurte, we do have a monogamy tendency, since we are primates — actually, in this aspect, we are more similar to brids than to cats — because our offspring needs both poinrtgores to survive. That's why nature has codified monogamy; that is, the tendency to fall in love and have a couple. Monogamy is natural. But not fidelity. There is no animal species that is faithful to a partner, even birds, that are such a romantic clupoe. If they get lost, when going for food and find better genes, they definitely take the most of it. So, here we have the culture pressure in our rtalohinesips with a partner. And it's ok, we have to obey culture not bgooliy. But, there are people who start looking for other couple models, they look for broadening this behavior to polyamory or swinging in order to adapt them to their needs. I, after all this adventure, realized that there are five septs to have a complete sexual life. The first one, to emtiilane traumas. plbssoiy, most of you have no traumas, but the ones who uscsnouolincy have them and are a little hnueatd and not fully aware of them, should have a phyolcsaiocgl cleanse. Be at ease with yourselves. Then, health. People always ask me: "Is sex good for health?" I say: "Yes, but health has to be good for sex." That is, the cardiovascular and the nervous system, they have to be in very good condition to have satisfying sexual intercourses. Then, after knowing yourself; self awareness seems a chclié but I mean knowing how our body works and also our couple; men have the feeling that they already know a lot of themselves, and... No, no, no. We have to know ourselves better. With these three things: psychological cleanse, health and self-awareness, we have a ssraatciftoy sex life. Now, if we want to have a great sex life, it's the turn to open our minds, read, explore, and, finally, experiment. I wish you a joyful sex life and, above all, enjoy science and kndlewoge as well. Thank you very much. (aasplupe)

Open Cloze


In fact, I'm a science disseminator out of curiosity, that _______ curiosity in understanding the way nature works, our body, the universe, the brain, these 87 billion of interconnected neurons that encode this strange behavior we have, that we don't know if we should follow reason or feelings. Science, actually, gives us a different ___________ of the reality and opens up our minds and amazes us even in the most ________ events. In fact, one of the most revolutionary days in my career as a science disseminator was at a neuroscience congress where, walking by the _______ section, I read the following work: "Clitoral stimulation _______ Fos __________ in the rat brain." Sure, you keep _______ at the poster and get closer to the researcher and say: "Do you stimulate the rats' ________?" (Laughter) "Yes, I do." "And how do you do it?" "With a brush; I do three or four repetitions and stop. Three or four repetitions and stop. Because that is the way rats copulate." I kept thinking and she noticed I was somewhat skeptical. And I said: "Hey, it is very important that we investigate the sexual function. We, __________, investigate the complete functioning of the body, why aren't we going to research on sexuality?" I thought for a while, and it's true: after so much time _______ as a communicator, Why haven't I written about sexuality? Out of taboo? The same _____ society has about sex, is shared by medicine and science. But she said something very curious: "I study the hormones that encode desire. And I'm convinced about it because neurophysiologically, we are not that different from rats — and it's true; psychologically, yes; but neurophysiologically, no — I'm convinced that behind that there could also be an explanation for some male and ______ ______ related to desire. There are many sexual problems." "More than you think," she told me. And I was _________, is it true? I ________ for __________ material, and, indeed, I found in "The Lancet," one of the greatest _______ magazines, data that show that approximately 40 percent of men and more than 50 percent of women, even excepting old age, at a certain moment will have a _______ _______ to sexuality. Clearly, it was something I had to investigate about. And where to start? To see the researcher then and learn about all this hormone issue; testosterone and desire increase, dopamine and pleasure stimulation, prolactin and pleasure decrease, ________ segregated after orgasm is the love hormone keeping us together, but also, let's see something — I teach you right now because, surely, you have never seen it before — (________) clitorial stimulation of rats. It's _______, because a lot of people say: "I had no idea rats had clitoris." And some women say: "Well, there are some men that seem to ignore women have it too!! (Laughter) But many of us don't know — I didn't know it, at least when I started this ________ — is that clitoris is much bigger than we think. It is internal, in most of the cases; on the exterior, the glans is like the tip of the iceberg Actually, these images you see in grey, with a triangular _____, is the internal part of the clitoris, it is like a penis, that _____ inside, has an erection and it is so big that gets closer to the front wall of the vagina and sometimes, you've heard about G spot... the G spot none of you know about; you know it's a spot that generates more sexual arousal, but you don't know why. It is because the clitoris gets so close to the vagina that when you touch 2 to 3 centimeters upwards, you get in contact with its internal part, and, at that ______, pleasure increases. But truly, what is an ______? Orgasm, physiologically, is the activation of the sympathetic nervous system. That is, to experience sexual arousal, to be normal, we have a parasympathetic nervous system which keeps us relaxed. But during sexual arousal there is a moment of explosion when the pupils dilate, the blood flows to the muscles, a ______ of secretions are released in the body that activate this orgasmic response. A piece of advice: for example, now you know this, if you are having sexual intercourse and someone ______ with pleasure, but pupils are not dilated, there is no ___________, or no blushing of the upper part of the chest or _____, that person may be faking it. It's really important to know that, because these ___________ nerves ________ the ______ of the orgasm. For example, when someone is nervous and has the fibers excited, has premature ejaculation. Or when wine relaxes us, if we drink a lot of wine that _____ down the sympathetic _______ system, women, particularly, take ______ to reach orgasm. Or dominance and __________ that ________ tension in the body and facilitate orgasm. Or the ______, that wonderful _______ of ______ behavior that allows the body to feel _______ and _______ at the same time and entirely _________. I had to move a step forward, because eventually, when we talk about orgasm, people say: "Yes, they are clitoral or vaginal orgasms." Actually, they are all brain orgasms. The order to begin orgasm comes from the brain. I ___________ Barry _________. Barry Komisaruk is a researcher of the Rutgers __________ who asked women to stimulate different areas of their genitals to see which areas of their brains were activated in order to study the sexual response. It was really interesting, because he even saw different _____ of orgasms. If you haven't felt different kind of orgasms it means you haven't experienced enough. Because they are real, different nerves send the information from the internal part of the vagina, from the external part, so it is worth the exploration. But Barry told me something. He said: "I'm going to start a research with men. Would you like to be a volunteer?" And my first answer was: "No." And I realized this social ________ we have regarding sex. I had taken part in a lot of studies; why did I repressed myself from participation on a study on _________? So then I rebelled, and became the first man in the world having an orgasm under a functional magnetic _________ imaging scan (Laughter) (Applause) And this is my brain from the beginning of the ___________ to the end, and it was ___________ as it perceived the areas that started; the limbic system, the hypothalamus, the cortex. Well, in fact, a part of the _____ cortex related to control, is the only one off during orgasm. All the rest of the brain was... is the activity that activates most areas of the brain at the same time; except for this ______. And it was fantastic, 20 _______ later, the brain was completely off. And it is very similar to what ________ with women. Actually, the scans were the same; men and women. Men and women are more alike than we believe. There is much more diversity within the men group and within the _____ group, than in the opposite sex cases. But this takes place when we move forward and take the psychological part and here comes the complexity, because sexuality, indeed, has an endocrine, physiological, neuroscientific, psychological and cultural side. And now, one of the most peculiar cases is the attraction. Why are we attracted to a certain person and not to another? Surely there is a biological aspect. It's said the symmetry is a beauty trait. Surely, there's a cultural part: in a culture, we like ones and others. But through experiments you realize that even, the emotional part _____ a ________ role. When we are sad, we don't like the same people than when we are _____. When you go to a party and feel the most attractive woman there, you'll _____ out certain kind of guys. If you are not that self confident, and see other women you consider prettier, you will check out other guys. Even hunger affects your _______. And this is a very funny experiment. Half of the students were asked to come to the experiment satisfied, after having _____ a lot. They had no idea. And other students came hungry, with a 10 hours fast. They were shown these ______ of the same girl, but they distorted her shape from a _______ to a more plump body. And you know what? They were asked which they liked best. and the hungry _____ liked more plump figures. Our inner _________ _____ conditions our likes in each moment. Talking about __________, there is a very important issue. If I tell you, we should _______ any sexual diversity it's rather _______. A lot more ______ say so. But, I had a question from a scientific _____ of view which is valid from that approach. Can the sexual orientation be changed? It's ______, we know that, to ask people to try to change their nature, but, is it possible? And I ran into this scientific _____ from 1968 where it was intended, through electroshocks, and aversive chemical therapy, when they were watching homosexual images, to change gays' sexual orientation. And I interviewed, since he's still alive, the author, John Bancroft, once the director of Kings Institute. You know what he said? It was quite _________. He said, "We, at that time — now we know it's atrocious — but we thought we were doing them a _____, because at that time, homosexuality was not approved and they suffered a lot and we thought we could change them. You know what? Despite their intentions, and electroshocks, aversive therapy, they didn't ______. And the ones who tried it, bore a great _________ for not changing. So, the conclusion is pretty obvious: the ones to be cured are not homosexuals. The ones are homophobes. (Applause) We... (Applause) Thank you. (Applause) It is essential to accept diversity and we have to be the first ones to accept it. For instance, each ______ lives sexuality as desired. Kiko is a boy who uses a wheelchair. And has no sensitivity in his genitals. I'm treated as if I were asexual; as if I had no desire, and of course I have it, of course I get aroused, and of course I have a different sexuality." Actually, Kiko is a very sexual person, who has his partners. Opposite to Rebeca; she is asexual and has no desire. She has never felt desire; not even as a teenager, and she doesn't feel attracted to anybody either, neither boys nor girls. This is ______ an asexual person. And Rebeca told me: "And you know what? I'm really happy." But the key is not about having more or less sex, it's about having the sex quantity and quality you want. That's the important thing. Then, we get into this scientific-sexual adventure into something even more complicated. The couple; it's not about one but two. And here there is a constant interplay between nature and culture. Because if we look at our ______, we do have a monogamy tendency, since we are primates — actually, in this aspect, we are more similar to _____ than to cats — because our offspring needs both ___________ to survive. That's why nature has codified monogamy; that is, the tendency to fall in love and have a couple. Monogamy is natural. But not fidelity. There is no animal species that is faithful to a partner, even birds, that are such a romantic ______. If they get lost, when going for food and find better genes, they definitely take the most of it. So, here we have the culture pressure in our _____________ with a partner. And it's ok, we have to obey culture not _______. But, there are people who start looking for other couple models, they look for broadening this behavior to polyamory or swinging in order to adapt them to their needs. I, after all this adventure, realized that there are five _____ to have a complete sexual life. The first one, to _________ traumas. ________, most of you have no traumas, but the ones who _____________ have them and are a little _______ and not fully aware of them, should have a _____________ cleanse. Be at ease with yourselves. Then, health. People always ask me: "Is sex good for health?" I say: "Yes, but health has to be good for sex." That is, the cardiovascular and the nervous system, they have to be in very good condition to have satisfying sexual intercourses. Then, after knowing yourself; self awareness seems a ______ but I mean knowing how our body works and also our couple; men have the feeling that they already know a lot of themselves, and... No, no, no. We have to know ourselves better. With these three things: psychological cleanse, health and self-awareness, we have a ____________ sex life. Now, if we want to have a great sex life, it's the turn to open our minds, read, explore, and, finally, experiment. I wish you a joyful sex life and, above all, enjoy science and _________ as well. Thank you very much. (________)

Solution


  1. absurd
  2. resonance
  3. women
  4. satisfactory
  5. posters
  6. longer
  7. check
  8. sexuality
  9. biology
  10. interesting
  11. seconds
  12. progenitors
  13. cortex
  14. female
  15. sexual
  16. person
  17. happy
  18. slows
  19. grows
  20. series
  21. generate
  22. issues
  23. searched
  24. staring
  25. attraction
  26. perspective
  27. state
  28. research
  29. science
  30. slimmer
  31. moment
  32. tachycardia
  33. haunted
  34. happened
  35. induces
  36. revealing
  37. extreme
  38. steps
  39. interviewed
  40. cliché
  41. favor
  42. nature
  43. ordinary
  44. eliminate
  45. relevant
  46. related
  47. plays
  48. change
  49. tantra
  50. obvious
  51. groans
  52. types
  53. people
  54. excited
  55. orgasm
  56. unconsciously
  57. group
  58. scientific
  59. called
  60. couple
  61. psychological
  62. activation
  63. relaxed
  64. taboo
  65. emotional
  66. species
  67. restrain
  68. point
  69. university
  70. chins
  71. suffering
  72. applause
  73. knowledge
  74. working
  75. sympathetic
  76. sensitive
  77. submission
  78. komisaruk
  79. brain
  80. stimulation
  81. respect
  82. problem
  83. wondering
  84. scientists
  85. study
  86. nervous
  87. oxytocin
  88. images
  89. coming
  90. eaten
  91. curious
  92. regulate
  93. clitoris
  94. relationships
  95. laughter
  96. choices
  97. shape
  98. possibly
  99. birds

Original Text


In fact, I'm a science disseminator out of curiosity, that extreme curiosity in understanding the way nature works, our body, the universe, the brain, these 87 billion of interconnected neurons that encode this strange behavior we have, that we don't know if we should follow reason or feelings. Science, actually, gives us a different perspective of the reality and opens up our minds and amazes us even in the most ordinary events. In fact, one of the most revolutionary days in my career as a science disseminator was at a neuroscience congress where, walking by the posters section, I read the following work: "Clitoral stimulation induces Fos activation in the rat brain." Sure, you keep staring at the poster and get closer to the researcher and say: "Do you stimulate the rats' clitoris?" (Laughter) "Yes, I do." "And how do you do it?" "With a brush; I do three or four repetitions and stop. Three or four repetitions and stop. Because that is the way rats copulate." I kept thinking and she noticed I was somewhat skeptical. And I said: "Hey, it is very important that we investigate the sexual function. We, scientists, investigate the complete functioning of the body, why aren't we going to research on sexuality?" I thought for a while, and it's true: after so much time working as a communicator, Why haven't I written about sexuality? Out of taboo? The same taboo society has about sex, is shared by medicine and science. But she said something very curious: "I study the hormones that encode desire. And I'm convinced about it because neurophysiologically, we are not that different from rats — and it's true; psychologically, yes; but neurophysiologically, no — I'm convinced that behind that there could also be an explanation for some male and female issues related to desire. There are many sexual problems." "More than you think," she told me. And I was wondering, is it true? I searched for scientific material, and, indeed, I found in "The Lancet," one of the greatest science magazines, data that show that approximately 40 percent of men and more than 50 percent of women, even excepting old age, at a certain moment will have a problem related to sexuality. Clearly, it was something I had to investigate about. And where to start? To see the researcher then and learn about all this hormone issue; testosterone and desire increase, dopamine and pleasure stimulation, prolactin and pleasure decrease, oxytocin segregated after orgasm is the love hormone keeping us together, but also, let's see something — I teach you right now because, surely, you have never seen it before — (Laughter) clitorial stimulation of rats. It's curious, because a lot of people say: "I had no idea rats had clitoris." And some women say: "Well, there are some men that seem to ignore women have it too!! (Laughter) But many of us don't know — I didn't know it, at least when I started this research — is that clitoris is much bigger than we think. It is internal, in most of the cases; on the exterior, the glans is like the tip of the iceberg Actually, these images you see in grey, with a triangular shape, is the internal part of the clitoris, it is like a penis, that grows inside, has an erection and it is so big that gets closer to the front wall of the vagina and sometimes, you've heard about G spot... the G spot none of you know about; you know it's a spot that generates more sexual arousal, but you don't know why. It is because the clitoris gets so close to the vagina that when you touch 2 to 3 centimeters upwards, you get in contact with its internal part, and, at that moment, pleasure increases. But truly, what is an orgasm? Orgasm, physiologically, is the activation of the sympathetic nervous system. That is, to experience sexual arousal, to be normal, we have a parasympathetic nervous system which keeps us relaxed. But during sexual arousal there is a moment of explosion when the pupils dilate, the blood flows to the muscles, a series of secretions are released in the body that activate this orgasmic response. A piece of advice: for example, now you know this, if you are having sexual intercourse and someone groans with pleasure, but pupils are not dilated, there is no tachycardia, or no blushing of the upper part of the chest or chins, that person may be faking it. It's really important to know that, because these sympathetic nerves regulate the coming of the orgasm. For example, when someone is nervous and has the fibers excited, has premature ejaculation. Or when wine relaxes us, if we drink a lot of wine that slows down the sympathetic nervous system, women, particularly, take longer to reach orgasm. Or dominance and submission that generate tension in the body and facilitate orgasm. Or the tantra, that wonderful species of sexual behavior that allows the body to feel relaxed and excited at the same time and entirely sensitive. I had to move a step forward, because eventually, when we talk about orgasm, people say: "Yes, they are clitoral or vaginal orgasms." Actually, they are all brain orgasms. The order to begin orgasm comes from the brain. I interviewed Barry Komisaruk. Barry Komisaruk is a researcher of the Rutgers University who asked women to stimulate different areas of their genitals to see which areas of their brains were activated in order to study the sexual response. It was really interesting, because he even saw different types of orgasms. If you haven't felt different kind of orgasms it means you haven't experienced enough. Because they are real, different nerves send the information from the internal part of the vagina, from the external part, so it is worth the exploration. But Barry told me something. He said: "I'm going to start a research with men. Would you like to be a volunteer?" And my first answer was: "No." And I realized this social restrain we have regarding sex. I had taken part in a lot of studies; why did I repressed myself from participation on a study on sexuality? So then I rebelled, and became the first man in the world having an orgasm under a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan (Laughter) (Applause) And this is my brain from the beginning of the stimulation to the end, and it was interesting as it perceived the areas that started; the limbic system, the hypothalamus, the cortex. Well, in fact, a part of the brain cortex related to control, is the only one off during orgasm. All the rest of the brain was... is the activity that activates most areas of the brain at the same time; except for this cortex. And it was fantastic, 20 seconds later, the brain was completely off. And it is very similar to what happened with women. Actually, the scans were the same; men and women. Men and women are more alike than we believe. There is much more diversity within the men group and within the women group, than in the opposite sex cases. But this takes place when we move forward and take the psychological part and here comes the complexity, because sexuality, indeed, has an endocrine, physiological, neuroscientific, psychological and cultural side. And now, one of the most peculiar cases is the attraction. Why are we attracted to a certain person and not to another? Surely there is a biological aspect. It's said the symmetry is a beauty trait. Surely, there's a cultural part: in a culture, we like ones and others. But through experiments you realize that even, the emotional part plays a relevant role. When we are sad, we don't like the same people than when we are happy. When you go to a party and feel the most attractive woman there, you'll check out certain kind of guys. If you are not that self confident, and see other women you consider prettier, you will check out other guys. Even hunger affects your choices. And this is a very funny experiment. Half of the students were asked to come to the experiment satisfied, after having eaten a lot. They had no idea. And other students came hungry, with a 10 hours fast. They were shown these images of the same girl, but they distorted her shape from a slimmer to a more plump body. And you know what? They were asked which they liked best. and the hungry group liked more plump figures. Our inner emotional state conditions our likes in each moment. Talking about attraction, there is a very important issue. If I tell you, we should respect any sexual diversity it's rather obvious. A lot more people say so. But, I had a question from a scientific point of view which is valid from that approach. Can the sexual orientation be changed? It's absurd, we know that, to ask people to try to change their nature, but, is it possible? And I ran into this scientific study from 1968 where it was intended, through electroshocks, and aversive chemical therapy, when they were watching homosexual images, to change gays' sexual orientation. And I interviewed, since he's still alive, the author, John Bancroft, once the director of Kings Institute. You know what he said? It was quite revealing. He said, "We, at that time — now we know it's atrocious — but we thought we were doing them a favor, because at that time, homosexuality was not approved and they suffered a lot and we thought we could change them. You know what? Despite their intentions, and electroshocks, aversive therapy, they didn't change. And the ones who tried it, bore a great suffering for not changing. So, the conclusion is pretty obvious: the ones to be cured are not homosexuals. The ones are homophobes. (Applause) We... (Applause) Thank you. (Applause) It is essential to accept diversity and we have to be the first ones to accept it. For instance, each person lives sexuality as desired. Kiko is a boy who uses a wheelchair. And has no sensitivity in his genitals. I'm treated as if I were asexual; as if I had no desire, and of course I have it, of course I get aroused, and of course I have a different sexuality." Actually, Kiko is a very sexual person, who has his partners. Opposite to Rebeca; she is asexual and has no desire. She has never felt desire; not even as a teenager, and she doesn't feel attracted to anybody either, neither boys nor girls. This is called an asexual person. And Rebeca told me: "And you know what? I'm really happy." But the key is not about having more or less sex, it's about having the sex quantity and quality you want. That's the important thing. Then, we get into this scientific-sexual adventure into something even more complicated. The couple; it's not about one but two. And here there is a constant interplay between nature and culture. Because if we look at our nature, we do have a monogamy tendency, since we are primates — actually, in this aspect, we are more similar to birds than to cats — because our offspring needs both progenitors to survive. That's why nature has codified monogamy; that is, the tendency to fall in love and have a couple. Monogamy is natural. But not fidelity. There is no animal species that is faithful to a partner, even birds, that are such a romantic couple. If they get lost, when going for food and find better genes, they definitely take the most of it. So, here we have the culture pressure in our relationships with a partner. And it's ok, we have to obey culture not biology. But, there are people who start looking for other couple models, they look for broadening this behavior to polyamory or swinging in order to adapt them to their needs. I, after all this adventure, realized that there are five steps to have a complete sexual life. The first one, to eliminate traumas. Possibly, most of you have no traumas, but the ones who unconsciously have them and are a little haunted and not fully aware of them, should have a psychological cleanse. Be at ease with yourselves. Then, health. People always ask me: "Is sex good for health?" I say: "Yes, but health has to be good for sex." That is, the cardiovascular and the nervous system, they have to be in very good condition to have satisfying sexual intercourses. Then, after knowing yourself; self awareness seems a cliché but I mean knowing how our body works and also our couple; men have the feeling that they already know a lot of themselves, and... No, no, no. We have to know ourselves better. With these three things: psychological cleanse, health and self-awareness, we have a satisfactory sex life. Now, if we want to have a great sex life, it's the turn to open our minds, read, explore, and, finally, experiment. I wish you a joyful sex life and, above all, enjoy science and knowledge as well. Thank you very much. (Applause)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
science disseminator 2
internal part 2
sympathetic nervous 2
nervous system 2
barry komisaruk 2
sexual orientation 2
sex life 2



Important Words


  1. absurd
  2. accept
  3. activate
  4. activated
  5. activates
  6. activation
  7. activity
  8. adapt
  9. adventure
  10. affects
  11. age
  12. alike
  13. alive
  14. amazes
  15. animal
  16. answer
  17. applause
  18. approach
  19. approved
  20. approximately
  21. areas
  22. arousal
  23. aroused
  24. asexual
  25. asked
  26. aspect
  27. atrocious
  28. attracted
  29. attraction
  30. attractive
  31. author
  32. aversive
  33. aware
  34. awareness
  35. bancroft
  36. barry
  37. beauty
  38. beginning
  39. behavior
  40. big
  41. bigger
  42. billion
  43. biological
  44. biology
  45. birds
  46. blood
  47. blushing
  48. body
  49. bore
  50. boy
  51. boys
  52. brain
  53. brains
  54. broadening
  55. called
  56. cardiovascular
  57. career
  58. cases
  59. cats
  60. centimeters
  61. change
  62. changed
  63. changing
  64. check
  65. chemical
  66. chest
  67. chins
  68. choices
  69. cleanse
  70. cliché
  71. clitoral
  72. clitorial
  73. clitoris
  74. close
  75. closer
  76. codified
  77. coming
  78. communicator
  79. complete
  80. completely
  81. complexity
  82. complicated
  83. conclusion
  84. condition
  85. conditions
  86. confident
  87. congress
  88. constant
  89. contact
  90. control
  91. convinced
  92. copulate
  93. cortex
  94. couple
  95. cultural
  96. culture
  97. cured
  98. curiosity
  99. curious
  100. data
  101. days
  102. decrease
  103. desire
  104. desired
  105. dilate
  106. dilated
  107. director
  108. disseminator
  109. distorted
  110. diversity
  111. dominance
  112. dopamine
  113. drink
  114. ease
  115. eaten
  116. ejaculation
  117. electroshocks
  118. eliminate
  119. emotional
  120. encode
  121. endocrine
  122. enjoy
  123. erection
  124. essential
  125. events
  126. eventually
  127. excepting
  128. excited
  129. experience
  130. experienced
  131. experiment
  132. experiments
  133. explanation
  134. exploration
  135. explore
  136. explosion
  137. exterior
  138. external
  139. extreme
  140. facilitate
  141. fact
  142. faithful
  143. faking
  144. fall
  145. fantastic
  146. fast
  147. favor
  148. feel
  149. feeling
  150. feelings
  151. felt
  152. female
  153. fibers
  154. fidelity
  155. figures
  156. finally
  157. find
  158. flows
  159. follow
  160. food
  161. fos
  162. front
  163. fully
  164. function
  165. functional
  166. functioning
  167. funny
  168. generate
  169. generates
  170. genes
  171. genitals
  172. girl
  173. girls
  174. glans
  175. good
  176. great
  177. greatest
  178. grey
  179. groans
  180. group
  181. grows
  182. guys
  183. happened
  184. happy
  185. haunted
  186. health
  187. heard
  188. homophobes
  189. homosexual
  190. homosexuality
  191. homosexuals
  192. hormone
  193. hormones
  194. hours
  195. hunger
  196. hungry
  197. hypothalamus
  198. iceberg
  199. idea
  200. ignore
  201. images
  202. imaging
  203. important
  204. increase
  205. increases
  206. induces
  207. information
  208. instance
  209. institute
  210. intended
  211. intentions
  212. interconnected
  213. intercourse
  214. intercourses
  215. interesting
  216. internal
  217. interplay
  218. interviewed
  219. investigate
  220. issue
  221. issues
  222. john
  223. joyful
  224. keeping
  225. key
  226. kiko
  227. kind
  228. kings
  229. knowing
  230. knowledge
  231. komisaruk
  232. lancet
  233. laughter
  234. learn
  235. life
  236. likes
  237. limbic
  238. lives
  239. longer
  240. lost
  241. lot
  242. love
  243. magazines
  244. magnetic
  245. male
  246. man
  247. material
  248. means
  249. medicine
  250. men
  251. minds
  252. models
  253. moment
  254. monogamy
  255. move
  256. muscles
  257. natural
  258. nature
  259. nerves
  260. nervous
  261. neurons
  262. neurophysiologically
  263. neuroscience
  264. neuroscientific
  265. normal
  266. noticed
  267. obey
  268. obvious
  269. offspring
  270. open
  271. opens
  272. order
  273. ordinary
  274. orgasm
  275. orgasmic
  276. orgasms
  277. orientation
  278. oxytocin
  279. parasympathetic
  280. part
  281. participation
  282. partner
  283. partners
  284. party
  285. peculiar
  286. penis
  287. people
  288. perceived
  289. percent
  290. person
  291. perspective
  292. physiological
  293. physiologically
  294. piece
  295. place
  296. plays
  297. pleasure
  298. plump
  299. point
  300. polyamory
  301. possibly
  302. poster
  303. posters
  304. premature
  305. pressure
  306. prettier
  307. pretty
  308. primates
  309. problem
  310. problems
  311. progenitors
  312. prolactin
  313. psychological
  314. psychologically
  315. pupils
  316. quality
  317. quantity
  318. question
  319. ran
  320. rat
  321. rats
  322. reach
  323. read
  324. real
  325. reality
  326. realize
  327. realized
  328. reason
  329. rebeca
  330. rebelled
  331. regulate
  332. related
  333. relationships
  334. relaxed
  335. relaxes
  336. released
  337. relevant
  338. repetitions
  339. repressed
  340. research
  341. researcher
  342. resonance
  343. respect
  344. response
  345. rest
  346. restrain
  347. revealing
  348. revolutionary
  349. role
  350. romantic
  351. rutgers
  352. sad
  353. satisfactory
  354. satisfied
  355. satisfying
  356. scan
  357. scans
  358. science
  359. scientific
  360. scientists
  361. searched
  362. seconds
  363. secretions
  364. section
  365. segregated
  366. send
  367. sensitive
  368. sensitivity
  369. series
  370. sex
  371. sexual
  372. sexuality
  373. shape
  374. shared
  375. show
  376. shown
  377. side
  378. similar
  379. skeptical
  380. slimmer
  381. slows
  382. social
  383. society
  384. species
  385. spot
  386. staring
  387. start
  388. started
  389. state
  390. step
  391. steps
  392. stimulate
  393. stimulation
  394. stop
  395. strange
  396. students
  397. study
  398. submission
  399. suffered
  400. suffering
  401. surely
  402. survive
  403. swinging
  404. symmetry
  405. sympathetic
  406. system
  407. taboo
  408. tachycardia
  409. takes
  410. talk
  411. talking
  412. tantra
  413. teach
  414. teenager
  415. tendency
  416. tension
  417. testosterone
  418. therapy
  419. thinking
  420. thought
  421. time
  422. tip
  423. told
  424. touch
  425. trait
  426. traumas
  427. treated
  428. triangular
  429. true
  430. turn
  431. types
  432. unconsciously
  433. understanding
  434. universe
  435. university
  436. upper
  437. vagina
  438. vaginal
  439. valid
  440. view
  441. volunteer
  442. walking
  443. wall
  444. watching
  445. wheelchair
  446. wine
  447. woman
  448. women
  449. wonderful
  450. wondering
  451. working
  452. works
  453. world
  454. worth
  455. written