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Sex Helps the Brain Grow
August 28, 2010
Sex can make your brain grow. If you’re a rat, that is. (This news is just in from LiveScience.com, which reporthe
Stress and anxiety stifle brain growth, so researchers at Princeton University asked, ”Would pleasant experiences help brain cells to grow?” They used lab rats to find out.
They gave adult male rats access to sexually-receptive females either once a day for two weeks or just one time in two weeks. They measured the blood levels of each rat for stress hormones called glucocorticoids, which the Princeton team thinks cause the detrimental effects that unpleasant or stressful experiences have on the brain. The results:
• When compared with male rats that had never had sex, both groups of sexually active rats had an increase in the number of neurons in the hippocampus, which is a part of the brain linked with memory and which is especially sensitive to unpleasant experiences.
• Rats that had daily sex, not only experienced adult brain cell growth, but also an increase in connections between brain cells.
• Rats that had sex just once in a two-week period had elevated levels of stress hormones, while the rats that had daily sex did not.
• The sexually active rats were less anxious than the virgin rats, as measured by the fact they were quicker to eat food in an unfamiliar place.
The conclusion was that while stressful situations can be detrimental to the brain, pleasurable experiences can over-ride the effects of stress. This study assumes, of course, that sex is a pleasureable experience for a rat. Now, get off the internet and go grow some brain cells!
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