Auditory/Brain "Orgasm" ?

[krelnik]

I'm no expert, but that sounds like a form of Synesthesia to me.

I agree with the rest of the folks on this thread that you should go see a neurologist about it.

--Tim Farley

 

[Dancing David]

Bikewer I just googled Oliver Sachs and will definitely look into some of his publications. It definitely does seem interesting, I take it you're saying maybe in some sense my brain is "feeling" the sounds?

David, they are so random and rare, I'd say honestly, maybe 1 every other month now adays, so they really don't affect me or distract me in my daily life. When I was a kid they were much more frequent. I honestly can't remember if I get headaches afterwards but I don't believe I do. I do know lately I've had some really bad migraines off and on and I did have my latest episode in question during this time.

You will want to talk to your GP, if that is the usual pattern. See if they want to refer you to a neurologist or just treat the migranes.

 

[Lianad]

Wow, thanks again for the information everyone. I will definitely do some research after the holidays and see if my insurance would cover a neurologist visit ( I believe they do).

And for the record, I'm not sure how this got established in this thread, but I am a male so would appreciate not being referred to as a she in the future

 

[Madalch]

LOL thanks for the chuckle. Are you sure I shouldn't be looking into some homeopathic medicine though?

Since the homeopaths believe that "like cures like", what are they going to prescribe in order to cure orgasms?

Mother Tincture I.L.F.?

 

[AK-Dave]

You may want to try contacting Shelly over at Retrospectacle on Scienceblogs.com. She may be able to suggest other resources for your research.

-David

 

[thesyntaxera]

How about reading up on Psycho Acoustics? The most basic definition is that it is the science of how sounds makes us feel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoacoustics

I can relate to your experience having spent a good deal of time trying to figure out the same thing. I noticed it first when listening to certain types of music. Typically for me I get the same effect when music has a tight repetitive pattern that evolves slowly over time, or when the combination of sounds interact a peak points during a piece, and I am able to reproduce those feelings of euphoria nearly every time if the setting is right...some times to the point of tear secretion.

Examples for me would be listening to Jeff Buckley's title track from his album Grace, pretty much anything by Beethoven, certain electronic tracks by Boards of Canada, or live tracks by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Silver Mt. Zion.

I can't say these examples would work for every one, however I do know of a lot of people who report similar things when listening to musical or vocal pieces.

As an experiment perhaps you would listen to a piece that I know provides me with this effect and you can see if it does the same for you? If you are interested go to the link and listen to TRACK 3 titled "American Motor Over Smoldered Field"...headphones are a help, or a nice volume level above the mid range point:
http://www.archive.org/details/asmz2005-06-16.mic.flac16

Typically for me, treating it as a sort of meditation helps achieve the effect greatly.

From my experience working in psychiatry and dealing with people who have had various brain ailments such as cancer, I know that the brain can produce some pretty amazing and or terrifying things...to use the brain tumor example...a person I have known reported hearing the sounds of ringing bells, radio static a low levels, and low frequency electrical noises, along with people talking as if in the background or over a radio. In the strictly psychiatric end all manner of auditory hallucinations and somatic sensations have been reported, although most are typically voices, sometimes of those familiar to them, and almost always carrying a negative connotation...like "your evil" or "you fat and ugly" or "kill yourself"....

 

[DRBUZZ0]

Lianad, I sent your OP past Steve Novella (a neurologist), who said:



So, I'll just restate my 1st response and say (whether for your health or curiosity), please see a specialist on this.

I second Rebbecca on this. It's one thing to chat on a forum about weird things you've experienced, but this sounds like maybe potentially it could be something like a seizure. In any case, rather than banter on it and have us go back and forth with what it may/may not be, see a doctor. We've established that it's potentially a problem, and when in doubt: see a doc. It may be nothing, but even for a doctor, an online text-based diagnosis is not gona cut it.

If you don't know a neurologist or neurological place to go, just call your GP or the student health center or whoever you go to and ask them to point you the right way. It sounds like this has been going on for a while, so it might not be real urgent, but you still ought to go the professional road sooner rather than later.

 

[petra10]

The chocolate company headquartered in my town now makes a chocolate with 97.5% cocoa. Surely we can use this to produce multiple orgasms.

~~ Paul

Name of chocolate company, town and chocolate...Please!!!!

Sorry to derail your thread Lainad but this is an emergency.

 

[Michael C]

The sensations you describe, or something similar, are familiar to both me and my wife. In my case the trigger is musical: specific harmonic progressions or orchestral colours can bring on the effect. My wife can produce the "orgasm" almost on demand by controlling her breathing and putting herself into some sort of meditative state.

I've never thought of this as being a seizure or other illness: it's just something very pleasant, a sort of euphoria with no apparent side effects. Since it is not accompanied by any other symptoms, and it's something I have known for about 35 years, I doubt that it is the sign of an illness. I just enjoy it. Many musicians I've talked to have similar experiences. A deeply religious friend of mine has something similar happen when he prays, so of course for him there is no doubt as to the cause.

A neurologist might do tests to rule out possible nasty causes such as brain tumours, but I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with you. With luck you might find a neurologist with a specific interest for such phenomena, who might be able to shed some light on what actually happens in a "brain orgasm". I've just started reading Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia: I'll report back here if I find he has described anything similar to this.

 

[Rolfe]

I vaguely recognise this. I was once forced to ask an older woman what a hot flush actually felt like. Since I'd been led to believe they were unpleasant, and, well.... She gave me a description that certainly did sound unpleasant, and capped it by saying, if you have to ask, you're not having them.

No, quite right, I wasn't.

Rolfe.

 

[Ron_Tomkins]

I wonder if any of this has something to do with a "popular fact" that I read somewhere (and of course it could be false) which says: "The brain cannot tell the difference bewteen a sneeze and an orgasm".

I laughed at first. Then later I remembered that sometimes when I get aroused really fast (And by really fast I mean that I get really excited all of a sudden), sometimes I sneeze. It's like the libido triggers a sneeze. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[DRBUZZ0]

I vaguely recognise this. I was once forced to ask an older woman what a hot flush actually felt like. Since I'd been led to believe they were unpleasant, and, well.... She gave me a description that certainly did sound unpleasant, and capped it by saying, if you have to ask, you're not having them.

No, quite right, I wasn't.

Rolfe.

I've felt a hot flash once or twice. It was after I had tried to start the damn grill a bunch of times and the propane had pooled in it. It was something of a flash and it was most certainly very hot.

 

[DRBUZZ0]

I wonder if any of this has something to do with a "popular fact" that I read somewhere (and of course it could be false) which says: "The brain cannot tell the difference bewteen a sneeze and an orgasm".

I laughed at first. Then later I remembered that sometimes when I get aroused really fast (And by really fast I mean that I get really excited all of a sudden), sometimes I sneeze. It's like the libido triggers a sneeze. Has anyone else experienced this?

Sometimes I fantasize about having a cold while I fondle my nose and look at pictures of dust and pollen. But that's because I don't have a real virus in my life to be with at that time :-(

 

[Schneibster]

Under similar circumstances I get a strong tingling in the back of my head and down my spine. It usually happens with music with which I have a strong emotional attachment. It does not happen with simple sounds. It has happened ever since I can remember.

As others have said, I think you should see a neurologist, just in case it is an indication of epilepsy or something like that.

~~ Paul

That's interesting. I get the same thing, it's with music, almost always music I have a strong emotional attachment to of one kind or another, and the tingle in the back of the head and down the spine is the signature of it for me. It can bring tears to my eyes.

As far as the epilepsy, that was my thought as well; I don't know if the term is current, but I was thinking psychomotor epilepsy or a variant, rather than one of the more well-known types. Definitely see a neurologist.

 

[Schneibster]

I wonder if any of this has something to do with a "popular fact" that I read somewhere (and of course it could be false) which says: "The brain cannot tell the difference bewteen a sneeze and an orgasm".

I laughed at first. Then later I remembered that sometimes when I get aroused really fast (And by really fast I mean that I get really excited all of a sudden), sometimes I sneeze. It's like the libido triggers a sneeze. Has anyone else experienced this?

I've heard of something very like this before. Hopefully I'll remember what it was before long. But this is not the first time I've heard of it.

 

[Professor Yaffle]

Your brain can't tell the difference between a sneeze and an orgasm?? Well if you can tell the difference, so can your brain...

 

[amandaishere]

me too

"Here is what happens in a nutshell. While listening to certain sounds, which in the past have always consisted of a person's voice, or most recently sounds my cat makes while grooming, I'll start to get this weird tingly feeling in my brain, eventually, if I focus long enough on the specific sound, I get the most euphoric and satisfying feeling in my brain."

This happens to me too. I'm 24 and I think it first started happening 12 years ago but it happens more and more all the time. Now it's about once a week. I'm not concerned but very curious as to the cause, especially because I believe it's neurological. For me it happens more often with female voices. I go into a trance-like state and it's so euphoric - I want to stay in it forever. It's a little similar to the sensation of someone softly playing with your hair - the tingling of the scalp except obviously this is inside my head. Additionally, after the person stops speaking the sound resonates for about 30 seconds and I feel tingly and so happy and calm and it really feels like I'm moving back slowly to reality.

I also don't know the cause, but clues for me are that it almost always happens when someone is speaking calmly to me. It has happened over the phone. It's been strangers as well as good friends but more often its people I don't speak to on a regular basis. Sometimes if I feel it coming on I can focus to make sure my brain gets to that good feeling. If there's a lot of background noise or something else distracting it's very difficult. When I respond to the person talking it doesn't break the spell but it does decrease the power of the feeling.

It's so great to have finally found someone who has this same experience! Now, did anyone ever figure out the cause? Lianad?

 

[Furious Coder]

Yeah, this sounds familiar, but I can bring it about "on demand" if I'm in the right relaxed frame of mind, and am generally feeling pleasant. It's definitely not an orgasm, but it is a highly pleasurable tingling that starts at the back of the scalp and runs suddenly down the spine, often causing me to slightly hunch my shoulders and smile. There don't appear to be any negative side effects, and it certainly isn't pleasurable enough that I find myself becoming addicted to the situation.

Now real orgasms, that's a different story.

 

[Michael C]

I've now read Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks. Sacks doesn't describe exactly this phenomenon, but it's clear that this is the sort of thing that interests him. His contact details are to be found on his website, http://www.oliversacks.com.

 

[Joppy]

Yeah, this sounds familiar, but I can bring it about "on demand" if I'm in the right relaxed frame of mind, and am generally feeling pleasant. It's definitely not an orgasm, but it is a highly pleasurable tingling that starts at the back of the scalp and runs suddenly down the spine, often causing me to slightly hunch my shoulders and smile. There don't appear to be any negative side effects, and it certainly isn't pleasurable enough that I find myself becoming addicted to the situation.

I get the same sensation when I feel embarrassed, although there is no feeling of orgasm. I can also create the same tingling at will but its neither pleasant nor unpleasant.