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Background: The effect of orgasm on the development and shaping of partner preferences may involve a catalysis of the neurochemical mechanisms of bonding. Therefore, understanding such process is relevant for neuroscience and psychology.
Methods: A systematic review was carried out using the terms Orgasm, Sexual Reward, Partner Preference, Pair Bonding, Brain, Learning, Sex, Copulation.
Results: In humans, concentrations of arousing neurotransmitters and potential bonding neurotransmitters increase during orgasm in the cerebrospinal fluid and the bloodstream. Similarly, studies in animals indicate that those neurotransmitters (noradrenaline, oxytocin, prolactin) and others (e.g. dopamine, opioids, serotonin) modulate the appetitive and consummatory phases of sexual behavior and reward. This suggests a link between the experience of orgasm/sexual reward and the neurochemical mechanisms of pair bonding. Orgasm/reward functions as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Some areas in the nervous system function as UCS-detection centers, which become activated during orgasm. Partner-related cues function as conditioned stimuli (CS) and are processed in CS-detector centers.
Conclusions: Throughout the article, we discuss how UCS- and CS-detection centers must interact to facilitate memory consolidation and produce recognition and motivation during future social encounters.
Keywords: orgasm; ejaculation; partner preference; pair bonding; opioids; dopamine; sexual reward
Responsible Editors: Adam Safron, Northwestern University, United States; Victorial Klimaj, Northwestern University, United States.
It isn't surprising that he should prefer his mistress, whose features, to him, offer a hundred units. Even little facial imperfections on other women, such as smallpox scar, touch the heart of a man in love, inspiring a deep reverie; imagine the effect when they are on his mistress's face. The fact is, that pockmark means a thousand things to him, mostly lovely and all fully interesting. The sight of a scar, even on another woman's face will strongly remind him of all these things.
(Stendhal, 1822/2013). De l'amour ('On love'), Chapter 17 (p. 53)
Introduction
The effect of orgasm on the development and shaping of partner preferences involves catalysis of the neurochemical mechanisms of bonding (Coria-Avila et al., 2014). In men and women, concentrations of arousing neurotransmitters, like noradrenaline, and potential bonding neurotransmitters, like oxytocin (OT) and prolactin (PRL), increase during orgasm in the cerebrospinal fluid and the bloodstream (Carmichael et al., 1987; Exton et al., 1999; Kruger, Haake, Hartmann, Schedlowski, & Exton, 2002; Kruger et al.,...