Orgasm is one of the most intense pleasures attainable to an organism yet its underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. thus creating TC-E 5001 synchronized functional networks within which multiple positive opinions processes intersect synergistically to contribute to sexual experience. These processes generate says of deepening sensory absorption and trance potentially culminating in climax if crucial thresholds are surpassed. The centrality of rhythmic activation (and its modulation by salience) for surpassing these thresholds suggests ways in which differential orgasmic responding between individuals-or with different partners-may serve TC-E 5001 as a mechanism for ensuring adaptive mate choice. Because the production of rhythmic activation combines honest indicators of fitness with cues relating to potential for expense differential Rabbit Polyclonal to SPI1. orgasmic response may serve to influence the probability of continued sexual encounters with specific mates. and possibly nervous systems (Hasson Ghazanfar Galantucci Garrod & Keysers 2012 Hennig 2014 S?nger Müller & Lindenberger 2012 – may impact sexual experience and functioning. I propose that synchrony promotes the intensity of sexual experience through at least three mechanisms: 1) enhanced summation of excitatory neural activity 2 increased attention via integration of mutually informing data streams and 3) maximal driving of neural systems for incentive and somatic response. The brain exhibits rhythmic oscillations at a variety of frequencies (Buzsáki & Watson 2012 the source of which is the synchronous activity of neuronal populations. On the level of basic neurophysiology neurons are more likely to fire action potentials if their inputs arrive within a thin window of time relative to each other TC-E 5001 (Schutter 2004 This temporal summation suggests a straightforward role for synchrony in enhancing neural signaling: synchronized neural systems allow inputs to arrive within sufficiently thin windows of time such that neurons are more likely to transmit further signals by firing.3 In terms of cognitive and affective functioning synchrony likely promotes enhanced coordination of different kinds of information (Deco & Kringelbach 2016 Experiences have tactile visual auditory olfactory and gustatory aspects all of which are associated in specific ways based on their common causation by particular multi-aspect properties of the world (Hayek 1952 This challenge of bringing together multiple causes into a coherent circulation of experience is sometimes called the ‘binding problem’ (Singer 2001 and synchrony may be crucial for understanding how different aspects of percepts are bound together into coherent wholes (Baars 2005 Edelman 2004 Melloni et al. 2007 Tononi TC-E 5001 2008 Synchronous rhythms have been proposed as a basic mechanism of perceptual stability and attentional control and theoretically the conditions that promote neural synchrony could enhance the vividness of consciousness (Buzsáki & Watson 2012 Canolty & Knight 2010 Lakatos Karmos Mehta Ulbert & Schroeder 2008 Lutz Greischar Rawlings Ricard & Davidson 2004 Entrainment is usually a means of enhancing particular synchronous patterns occurring when a system is influenced to oscillate at a given frequency based on rhythmic activation at comparable or related frequencies (Canolty & Knight 2010 Thut et al. 2011 Although TC-E 5001 still awaiting empirical verification there are several reasons to believe that sexual rhythms are likely to entrain synchronous brain oscillations. First it is obvious that at least some degree of rhythmic activation facilitates sexual enjoyment (Joannides 2000 Kaplan 2013 and that an overly irregular or erratic rhythm can be disruptive. Although an overly predictable pattern can lead to desensitization and habituation excessive predictability can be circumvented through either introducing novel activation by switching between rhythmic modes or by increasing rhythmic complexity (Vuust & Witek 2014 Witek Clarke Wallentin Kringelbach & Vuust 2014 The presence of these semi-stable oscillations during sexual activity provides oscillating sensory inputs thus providing a possible means of entraining neural systems (Teplan Krakovská & TC-E 5001 ?tolc 2011 A.