Don’t Do Anything at All? Facts Suggest Aphrodisiacs Could Remain Just a Fantasy
Sexual arousal may simply too complex to effectively replicate
The way many sexual technologies seem to be rapidly progressing, there’s a very good chance we’ll see—and enjoy—everything from autonomous, hyper-realistic artificial companions to fully immersive, completely interactive erotic playgrounds.
And well and good, but it’s looking like one particular legendary sexual fantasy, a substance that’d instantly arouse anyone who consumes it, may forever remain out of reach—or will it?
Turning on the body
University of Michigan Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Kent Berridge told Popular Science that a dream-come-true aphrodisiac would have to perform the extremely challenging task of stimulating two completely separate areas of the brain.
The first, known for governing a key pleasure-inducing hormone, was long thought to lie in the mesolimbic pathway. “We all thought that the dopamine system was pleasure, that turning on dopamine would generate pleasure,” Berridge explained.
This is because dopamine can be triggered by external stimuli, with Berridge postulating it’s more of an instigator of sexual arousal rather than the source of it.
So, in order to make our aphrodisiac recipe complete, it would also have to pick up where dopamine leaves off by making sex feel exceptionally good.
Researchers have determined our brain’s opioid and endocannabinoid neurotransmitters are the actual source of sexual pleasure.
So a truly reliable aphrodisiac would have to hit both cranial sweet spots at the right time, in the right order, with the right dosages to make our fantasy a reality.
Turning on the mind
Not that in the several thousand years of human history, we’ve ever stopped trying. But the truth is, even after all that time, we’ve never come close to developing a genuine aphrodisiac.
And even while we’ve occasionally appeared to come close, the results have been problematic, to put it mildly.
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For instance, yohimbine, supposedly derived from an unusually rare plant, might turn a person on at the cost of heart arrhythmia, sleep disruption, and—just what you want in someone whose mind is sexually overclocked—manic behavior.
On the bright side, when it comes to erection-inducing medications, we’ve reached a, excuse the joke, high point. Not to pour cold water on our aphrodisiac dreams, but sildenafil might take care of the physical, we’ve yet to crack the emotional side of the equation.
Turning on ourselves
Pattern-seeking creatures that we are, we often tend to seek objective solutions—even if what we’ve attempted to understand or solve is purely subjective.
Sexual desire might involve the production and distribution of dopamine in conjunction with neurochemically activating the opioid and endocannabinoid centers of our brains—and, who knows, we someday may formulate a cocktail capable of hitting each in precisely the right way—but there’s no denying the far greater role emotional attraction plays in getting our libidos hot and bothered.
Besides, as we’ve discussed previously, would we truly want a consent-altering drug, medicine, or food?
Speaking to Time, University of Texas Health Science Center Psychologist Robert Dain compared the concept of an aphrodisiac to chemical assault, saying, “Did you ever notice that typically it’s the male who wants the aphrodisiac—not for himself but his partner?”
Logic and proportion—and responsibility
Steering well clear of the far-too-common, panic-stricken camp of damning a social or technological development, particularly one that may never be possible, let’s not forget that a great deal of good may come from some sort of all-encompassing, proven-effective aphrodisiac.
This includes its possible usefulness as a therapeutic tool in helping process performance or sex-related emotional concerns.
In the right hands, it may also do what performance-enhancing drugs can’t, that is linking the consumer’s mind with their body—demonstrating sexual fulfillment isn’t repeatedly inserting tab A into slot B but comes when a person is fully present, aware, and, more than anything else, conscious of their and their partner’s needs and desires.
As Robert Dain mentioned, in itself, our seemingly never-ending pursuit of a magical, sexual desire-indulging potion may do more than actually creating it by making us face—and hopefully move beyond—our dark, disturbing need to sexually manipulate other people.
Image Sources: Depositphotos
