An investigation of selected traditional assumptions about sexual arousal, orgasm and pleasure
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Relatively few studies have been conducted on orgasm, and several traditional assumptions about its relationship to sexual arousal and pleasure have not been empirically confirmed. The majority of orgasm research has focused on orgasmic difficulties in women. Following a review of our current understanding of orgasm and female orgasmic disorder (presented in Manuscript One), this research aimed to test the following assumptions: (a) clitoral stimulation is very important to women's ability to reach orgasm, (b) sexual arousal (and possibly orgasm) decreases genital pain sensitivity and increases pleasurable sensitivity, (c) men's sexual arousal decreases more consistently after orgasm than women's, and (d) orgasms are more pleasurable following a greater build-up of sexual arousal. In Manuscript Two, the literature on female genital mutilation/cutting and surgical restoration of the external clitoris was reviewed, and found to indirectly support the first assumption. Two experimental studies were conducted to investigate changes in sensitivity and sexual arousal/desire, respectively, with masturbation to orgasm in the laboratory. As described in Manuscript Three, the results of the first study contradicted the second assumption: women's genital pain sensitivity increased rather than decreased following masturbation (on the vulvar vestibule, especially with masturbation to orgasm), and pleasurable sensitivity did not change from baseline. As described in Manuscript Four, the results of the second study confirmed the third and fourth assumptions: men and women exhibited a similar pattern of increased sexual arousal and desire during masturbation, but men's sexual arousal decreased immediately after orgasm whereas women's remained elevated. Orgasmic pleasure was related to the build-up of sexual arousal and desire prior to orgasm in both genders, and in women to a greater post-orgasmic decrease in genital temperature but the maintenance of subjective sexual arousal and desire. In both studies, masturbation enjoyment in the laboratory was similar to that experienced at home, thus supporting the feasibility and ecological validity of conducting orgasm research in the laboratory. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed, as well as areas for future research, which should continue to integrate physiological and subjective measures of sexual experience to increase our understanding of their interaction.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.009 | 0.015 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.009 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.006 | 0.008 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".