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Sex: The Brain Below the Belt
inally, everything was in place. Her mind was calm. The massage did the trick. Vacation was always the best place. No work, no worries, no phone, no e-mail. No place else for Marcie’s brain to run. Her feet were even warm, and she wasn’t thinking about getting up for a pair of socks. He was hot—and a great lover. She could let go and let it happen. Her brain’s anxiety center was shutting down. The area for conscious decision making wasn’t lighting up so intensely. The neurochemical and neurological constellations were aligning for orgasm. Blast off. Female sexual turn-on begins, ironically, with a brain turn-off. The impulses can rush to the pleasure centers and trigger an orgasm only if the amygdala—the fear and anxiety center of the brain—has been deactivated. Before the amygdala has been turned off, any last-minute worry—about work, about the kids, about schedules, about getting dinner on the table—can interrupt the march toward orgasm. The fact that a woman requires this extra neurological step may
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