Interoception: A New Key to Female-Bodied Ecstasy

Researchers use brain science to unlock secrets to better, more frequent orgasms

The future looks brighter for female-bodied orgasms, thanks to a little known phenomena: interoception, defined in a new study as a “sense of the physiological condition of the body.” 

UK Researchers from psychology departments at the University of Sussex and the University of Essex analyzed a data set of self-reports from 318 women. According to a summary in Metro: 

“Experts found that someone who noticed their interoceptive sensations had increased orgasm frequency and the women who ‘trusted their body sensations’ reported higher levels of orgasm satisfaction when masturbating and when having partnered sex, compared to women who didn’t.” 

Based on the results of their study, the researchers envision a shift in female sexual health research:

“Rather than continuing to focus on female sexual dysfunction, we anticipate that the identification of interoceptive-specific mechanisms will facilitate the development of targeted and precise body-based perceptual strategies that provide sexual enrichment in women.”

But what if interoceptive-specific mechanisms already exist and have even been in use for thousands of years? This could be yet another case of Western science making a discovery that validates ancient knowledge, in this case knowledge from Eastern meditative and tantric traditions. 

If so, it’s possible some of these meditative processes—already designed to facilitate inner awareness—can be adapted to enrich our orgasms, along with other physical and spiritual benefits. 

The biology of interoception

When you think about it, it does make sense that noticing what goes on in your body would have an impact on how you experience your orgasms, right? 

According to the UK study, scientists have a fairly thorough understanding of the ways interoception affects sexual arousal, and now orgasm. So why haven’t we heard more about this? 

As the researchers point out, most sex studies focus on dysfunction—including orgasmic dysfunction in women—so data on normal, not to mention optimal, orgasmic functioning is scarce. 

The study describes three specific links between interoceptive processing and orgasm.

The first is an anatomical, sensory and touch-related link involving special C-fibres

found in the hairy parts of human skin. So stroking someone’s head hair or external female genitalia (e.g. the mons pubis) can activate interoceptive processing in the brain’s anterior insula (also called insular cortex or insular lobes) to create sexual arousal and aid orgasm.

The second are cognitive and affective links that involve the anterior insula as well as the prefrontal cortex, which create a metacognition of the body’s internal state. Interestingly, the anterior insula can also be stimulated by sexy visuals.

The third involves the vagus nerve. The study says the vagus nerve “innervates the cervix and the uterus, which are associated with orgasmic stimulation and its associated uterine contractions, respectively.” 

In other words, we all possess complex body/brain systems that support interoception. Though the UK study focuses on female bodies, it’s likely the benefits of Interoception apply to everyone.

The marvelous insula—anything but insulated

There’s a lot more to the biological story of interoception, but the real takeaway is that these elegant interactions of body and brain are there to make sexual ecstasy possible and even easy. 

But how to harness this hidden power? Cultivation of our capacity for inner awareness seems to be key. But before we get to that, let’s learn a little more about the insula, known as the fifth lobe, buried beneath the outer lobes of the brain. 

According to Neurolaunch:

“The insula doesn’t work in isolation, though. It’s got more connections than a social butterfly at a networking event. It’s intimately linked with the parietal lobe, that sensory integration powerhouse, and has strong ties to the limbic system, our emotional core. It also chats regularly with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s executive suite.”

Since it turns out a good portion of those insula-to-prefrontal-cortex chats are sexy as all get out, we can hardly be blamed for wanting to know more!

Through the past smartly

The insular cortex was discovered in 1809 by Johann Christian Reil, renowned as a  physician, anatomist, physiologist, and psychiatrist. In fact, Reil coined the word psychiatrie (psychiatry in English) a year before he discovered the pyramid-shaped insular cortex (also known as the “Islands of Reil”. 

But were ancient Kriya Yogins, and their modern adherents, there before him? Western neo-tantrics have long linked the fabled third eye, aka Cave of Brahma—the focus of many a meditative technique—to the thalamus, buried in the center of the brain. As it turns out, the thalamus is also somewhat flanked by the lobes of the insular cortex and these structures do interact.

It’s significant that the insular cortex is thought to facilitate our own self-awareness and awareness of present moments. If this hypothesis is correct—and there is evidence that it seems to be—the insula seems to serve as the “be here now” part of the brain. 

And that makes it compatible not only to the meditative mission of living in the moment, but also to the sexual intimacy mission of being present with yourself (and your body) as well as your lover. 

This is speculative, of course, but there is nothing to prevent any of us from exploring techniques found in neo-tantric, kriya yoga, and Taoist traditions and practicing them to aid sexually-motivated interoception. Or give orgasmic yoga a try.

There’s more than one way to cultivate sexual interoception

When sex researcher Donald L. Mosher proposed “sexual trance” as a key component of the “depth of involvement in human sexual response” necessary for orgasm (1980), he described a state of inner absorption that would allow a person to “abandon the generalized reality-orientation and form the special sexual-orientation.” Mosher wrote:

“When sexual trance is the preferred pathway of involvement, the setting requires freedom from distractions, the mood is relaxed and receptive, sexual techniques emphasize repetitive, sensual pacing, the sexual style is passive and inwardly oriented, fantasies are scriptless sensory images, and sex is conceived to be an altered state of consciousness or a trip that leads to intense absorption into sensation and orgasm with faded consciousness in which the person is transported.”

Mosher is describing a state of trance leading to an experience of interoception in a sexual context. And it’s very hypnotic. Therefore it’s likely that erotic hypnosis (or self-hypnosis) could be another way to cultivate an inner sense of your body. 

Intentional breath work is another. From Wim Hof’s guided breathing for beginners to a tantric “fire breath,” or a simple, four count box breath (inhale for four counts, hold for four, exhale for four, and wait four counts before the next inhale), breath work is a simple, low cost way to begin to cultivate embodied awareness. 

And let’s not ignore sex technology! Our modern sex toys can also bring us to arousing and delightful states of heightened awareness and we can cultivate those states to increase satisfaction!

The future of sex is the best of all worlds

In the future, we can expect more research into the system of interoception and its links to arousal and orgasmic links, for people of all genders. Expect to see more about this topic in sexual self-help materials.

It’s clear that a vibrant and satisfying sex life can incorporate the best of sex tech, understanding gleaned from scientific inquiries into sexual response and orgasm, and a range of body technologies, both ancient and new, like those described above. It’s an exciting future, and there’s no reason why the future can’t start now.

Image source: A.R. Marsh using Ideogram.ai.