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Genital stimulation, imagery, and orgasm in women

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TitleInfo
Title
Genital stimulation, imagery, and orgasm in women
SubTitle
an fMRI analysis
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Wise
NamePart (type = given)
Nan
NamePart (type = date)
1957-
DisplayForm
Nan Wise
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
author
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Komisaruk
NamePart (type = given)
Barry R
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Barry R Komisaruk
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
chair
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Delgado
NamePart (type = given)
Mauricio
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Mauricio Delgado
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
co-chair
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Tricomi
NamePart (type = given)
Elizabeth
DisplayForm
Elizabeth Tricomi
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Hanson
NamePart (type = given)
Catherine
DisplayForm
Catherine Hanson
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Whipple
NamePart (type = given)
Beverly
DisplayForm
Beverly Whipple
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
outside member
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Graduate School - Newark
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
school
TypeOfResource
Text
Genre (authority = marcgt)
theses
OriginInfo
DateCreated (qualifier = exact)
2014
DateOther (qualifier = exact); (type = degree)
2014-10
CopyrightDate (encoding = w3cdtf)
2014
Place
PlaceTerm (type = code)
xx
Language
LanguageTerm (authority = ISO639-2b); (type = code)
eng
Abstract (type = abstract)
The main questions addressed in my dissertation are: 1) how does fMRI- measured activity of the brain respond to physical versus imagined stimulation of the genitals, and 2) as the brain activity progresses from response to genital stimulation through orgasm to its resolution, how does the regional activity change? These questions are addressed in the form of two studies: 1) Activation of sensory and other brain regions in response to imagined versus physical genital stimulation, and 2) Brain regional activation upon transition to self- and partner-induced orgasm in women. The first study developed from a genital sensory mapping study (Komisaruk, Wise et al, 2011) in which our control condition revealed the intriguing serendipitous finding that just imagining genital or nipple stimulation activated the same regions of the genital sensory cortex as did actual tactile stimulation of these body regions. We extended this surprising finding by focusing on a comparison between tactile versus imagined stimulation of the nipple and clitoris. We designed two additional conditions -- imagined dildo stimulation versus imagined speculum stimulation -- to investigate possible differences in erotic versus non-erotic imagery. The present findings provide evidence that imagery activates brain regions implicated in bodily sensation, orgasm, and reward, some of which overlap with, and others that are different from, the brain regions that respond to tactile self-stimulation, e.g., paracentral lobule (the “genital sensory cortex”) and the prefrontal cortex, respectively. The second study addressed a major discrepancy in the literature regarding whether frontal and temporal cortical regions are activated (Komisaruk et al., 2004; 2005) or deactivated (Georgiadis et al., 2006; 2009) during orgasm. In addition to the different methods used (fMRI versus PET, respectively), a major procedural difference was that genital self-stimulation was employed in our fMRI studies while genital partner-applied stimulation was used in the PET studies. In an attempt to resolve the discrepancy, in the present study, we compared the regional brain activity observed during self- versus the partner- induced orgasm conditions. We found no deactivation of frontal or temporal regions during self- or partner stimulation-induced orgasm. Neither were there significant regional differences in activity between the self- and partner stimulation-induced orgasms. Consequently, we combined the data from the self-stimulation and partner-stimulation-induced orgasm groups. This analysis revealed widespread activation throughout the brain, including primary sensory, motor, sensory-motor integration and reward regions, whose distribution pattern changed in sequence, leading up to, during, and after orgasm. [Please refer to Appendix H for defense presentation summary of both studies]
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Psychology
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_5864
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (xviii, 245 p. : ill.)
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = vita)
Includes vita
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Female orgasm
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Nan Wise
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - Newark Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore10002600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
NjNbRU
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T3X63PKK
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
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Rights

RightsDeclaration (ID = rulibRdec0006)
The author owns the copyright to this work.
RightsHolder (type = personal)
Name
FamilyName
Wise
GivenName
Nan
Role
Copyright Holder
RightsEvent
Type
Permission or license
DateTime (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact); (point = start)
2014-09-19 13:13:18
AssociatedEntity
Name
Nan Wise
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - Newark
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
Reason
Permission or license
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Technical

RULTechMD (ID = TECHNICAL1)
ContentModel
ETD
OperatingSystem (VERSION = 5.1)
windows xp
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