The first scan revealing what happens inside a woman's brain when she has an orgasm has been developed by scientists. They have discovered that sexual arousal numbs the female nervous system to such an extent that she doesn't feel as much pain - only pleasure。

近日，科學家通過掃描檢測到，女性在性高潮時大腦內部有所變化。他們發(fā)現，性刺激可以麻痹女性神經系統(tǒng)，使她們感受到的快樂更多，痛苦更少。

Researchers from Rutgers University asked eight women to stimulate themselves while lying under a blanket inside a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner, a tunnel-like machine often used to detect brain tumors. Most women took less than five minutes to reach an orgasm. During that time, the MRI scanner took images of their brain to show which parts became active。

新澤西羅格斯大學的研究人員要求八位女性躺在裝有磁共振掃描儀的毯子下進行自我刺激，大部分女性在五分鐘內達到高潮。而在這五分鐘內，磁共振掃描儀對其大腦進行拍照，以檢查其大腦內部活躍部位。

The scientists found that two minutes before the orgasm, the brain's reward centers become active, the areas usually activated when eating food and drink. Immediately before they reached the peak, other areas of the brain became affected such as the sensory cortex, which receives “touch” messages。

科學家們發(fā)現，在高潮前兩分鐘，大腦的獎勵中樞開始活躍(獎勵中樞通常只會經由“食”和“飲”來激活)。而在高潮的前一刻，諸如感覺皮層(負責接收“觸覺”信息)這樣的其他部位也開始受到影響。

Once the orgasm has started other parts of the brain are activated such as those responsible for emotion - the cingulated cortex and the insula. The final part of the brain to be activated is the hypothalamus, the “control” part of the brain which regulates temperature, hunger, thirst and tiredness. At the same time another area responsible for pleasure is activated - the nucleus accumbens - as well as the caudate nucleus, which is responsible for memory。

高潮開始，負責情感的扣帶回皮層、腦島等大腦其他部位被激活。而最后一個活躍起來的是控制人體的溫度、饑渴感覺以及困倦感的下丘腦。同時，另外一處負責“愉悅”感的伏隔核，以及負責記憶的尾狀核也開始活躍起來。

Now the scientists also want to build up a similar picture for men so they can compare how the sensation affects the male and female brains。

如今科學家們正努力繪制出男性的高潮腦部變化圖，以便比較高潮對兩性腦部的影響究竟有何不同。