Science of arousal, orgasm shows different kinds in women

Scientific American - The Orgasmic Mind: The Neurological Roots of Sexual Pleasure

Scientific study of sexual practice is only about a half-century old, and theories about how desire and emotions are implicated in the process of arousal abound. It isn't just a case of hormone therapy and boosting testosterone, since there is a placebo effect of increasing sexual interest without any chemical treatment. Article first explores arousal, then orgasm. Studies in 2007 led researchers to conclude that women are more flexible in their sexual arousal than men. Women and men are both aroused by erotic imagery, but straight women are aroused by many types, including man-man, man-woman, bonobo-bonobo, man, woman. Men are aroused mostly by their preferred sexual partner, e.g. gay men for man-man, man, straight men for man-woman, woman. The differences in adaptive function of the female and male orgasm might be a start in explaining the differences in sensory and emotional responses between the sexes. Males primary evolutionary objective during sex is to ejaculate, while the female primary objective is less well understood, perhaps to bond the female to the partner. Studies using PET scans have revealed that at the point of clitoral orgasm the female brain goes 'silent', showing a drop of activity in the brain's self-control regions, moral reasoning, social judgment. 'At the moment of [clitoral] orgasm women do not have any emotional feelings'. Interestingly, other kinds of female orgasms induced through vaginal and cervical stimulation are implicated in rich emotional brain activity.