Our hormones play an important role in our desire for sex, as well as our ability to achieve orgasm, but new research suggests that it may be a smaller role than previously thought. New studies involving brain-imaging suggest that achieving orgasm involves more than heightened arousal. According to an article in the Scientific American Mind, achieving orgasm actually requires a release of control, as well as release of inhibitions in which "the brain's center of vigilance shuts down in males; in females, various areas of the brain involved in controlling thoughts and emotions become silent." When this occurs, our brains' centers for pleasure are activated. This activation occurs in both men and women but most prominently in men. Our natural human tendency to repeat activities in which we are rewarded encourages us to seek out more sexual encounters. If, or when, our sex drive begins to dissipate we can actually create an "orgasmic mind" to reignite our sexual desires. So ... how do we do that? (I can hear you asking!)

Well ... according to a 2007 study, sexual imagery that is void of any emotional connections can actually arouse women just as easily as they arouse men. As a matter of fact, sexual imagery can actually be more arousing for women because women are more apt to be less discriminating in the images that cause arousal than are men. The key is that women have been "taught" by societal standards to connect sex to emotions. When we (women) are able to experience the arousal without moral judgment, our bodies respond. By examining the female brain during orgasm, scientists found that women experienced a release of tension and inhibition. Scientists also witnessed a lull in excitation in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, which seems to play a role in moral reasoning and social judgment. Brain activity also fell in the amygdala, suggesting a depression of fear and anxiety at the point of orgasm ... an essential aspect of reaching orgasm.

Researchers also saw an activation in the limbic regions of the brain, specifically in the amygdala and the hypothalamus -- the two areas that produce oxytocin. Oxytocin is known as the "love" hormone hence, women will feel as if they are falling in love post orgasm. The nucleus accumbens -- an important part of the brain's reward circuitry that is thought to mediate orgasmic pleasure in women -- was also activated at orgasm. Lastly, scientists found activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula, the two areas of the brain that may connect a female's sexual pleasure with the emotional bond she feels with her partner.

So women, perhaps these "Cave men" have been on to something all these years ... erotica (in any form) may very well be missing ingredient that can ignite the spark of passion in your life! What do you think?