Neural pathways mediating vaginal function: The vagus nerves and spinal cord oxytocin

Abstract

The initial observations, made in our laboratory with Knut Larsson, of the ability of vaginocervical stimulation (VCS) to block withdrawal responses to foot pinch in rats has led to findings of multiple behavioral, autonomic, and neuroendocrine effects of this potent stimulus in rats and also in women. It has led to an understanding of: (1) the neuroanatomical and neurochemical basis of a novel and potent pain-blocking mechanism; (2) likely neuroanatomical pathways mediating both the Ferguson reflex and a specific autonomic response - the pupil-dilating effect of VCS; (3) a role for oxytocin as a putative central nervous system neurotransmitter that stimulates autonomic sympathetic preganglionic neurons within the spinal cord; and (4) a novel pathway that can convey sensory activity from the cervix, adequate to induce orgasm, via the vagus nerves. This latter pathway bypasses the spinal cord and projects directly to the medulla oblongata, and thus can convey genital afferent activity despite complete spinal cord injury at any level.

Doors of Female Orgasmic Consciousness: New Theories on the Peak Experience and Mechanisms of Female Orgasm and Expanded Sexual Response

“…Similar interesting data comes out of the research group of Komisaruk; stimulation of cervix alone induced orgasmic behavior in women who were hemiplegic, having no connection of nervous input from glans via pudental nerve and from vagina via pelvic nerve (Komisaruk, 2003(Komisaruk, , 2004(Komisaruk, , 2005(Komisaruk, , 2006; this is also a proof that orgasm reflexes can be triggered from the brain without the existence of input through glans clitoris.…”

“…There is a lot of data which confirms that four separate nerves carry sensory inputs from the "orgasming zones" of female genitalia or body; these are pudental, pelvic, hypogastric and vagus nerves (Ladas, 1982;Komisaruk, 2003Komisaruk, , 2004Komisaruk, , 2005Komisaruk, , 2006Sayin, 2011cSayin, , 2012aSayin, -b, 2013). The following are the possible pathways that carry sensory input to somato sensory, frontal and prefrontal cortices and the limbic system, and contribute to the formation of an "orgasm reflex" ( Figure 10); some of those loci directly trigger a female orgasm, some of them may have contributions in terms of sensory input.…”

“…Also Komisaruk et al and Sayin et al (Komisaruk, 2006;Sayin, 2010Sayin, , 2011Sayin, a-b-c, 2012 have reported that female orgasm can be triggered by means of the stimulation of other erogenous zones via different neural pathways, while "the brain" and the psychology of the woman played the major role. According to the novel accumulating data, glans clitoris was responsible of the 'clitoral orgasms' via a reflex pathway originating from pudental nerve and sacral plexus, while other vaginal erogenous zones, coined as "deep vaginal erogenous zones" (DVZ) were responsible of 'vaginal orgasms', via other orgasm reflex pathways, such as pelvic nerve-sacral plexus, hypogastric nerve-pelvic plexus and vagus nerve-brain (Ladas, 1982;Komisaruk, 2003Komisaruk, , 2004Komisaruk, , 2005Komisaruk, , 2006Sayin, 2010Sayin, , 2011aSayin, -b-c, 2012aSayin, -b-c, 2013. Also the term of "blended orgasm" had been defined by Ladas et al (Ladas, 1983) and Sayin et al (Sayin, 1993, 2010, 2011c, 2012a.…”

The endocrinology of sexual arousal

“…This may be related to the effects of vagino-cervical stimulation (VCS), which has been shown to induce analgesia in rats. Komisaruk & Sansone (2003) have proposed that this analgesic mechanism, which may have a fundamental role in reproduction by making mounting and intromission less noxious for the female, in part involves OT. They also present evidence that VCS results in a release of OT from PVN neurons, which project to the brain stem and spinal cord, activating the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system in the process.…”

Altered States of Consciousness Occurring During Expanded Sexual Response In The Human Female: Preliminary Definitions

“…Vagal nerve involvement in the development of female orgasms was also reported, defining that vagus nerve innervating uterus and cervix, supplying a by-pass pathway distant from the plexuses related with spinal cord (Komisaruk, 2003(Komisaruk, , 2004 (Komisaruk, 2005). It is hypothesized that pudental, pelvic, hypogastric and vagus nerves are involved in the development of female orgasm (Komisaruk, 1998(Komisaruk, , 2003(Komisaruk, , 2004(Komisaruk, , 2005(Komisaruk, , 2006(Komisaruk, , 2011.…”