Will boink for brains
Sex Boosts Brain Growth, Study Suggests
By Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience Contributor
posted: 28 July 2010 09:21 am ET
Sex apparently can help the brain grow, according to new findings in rats.
Sexually active rodents also seemed less anxious than virgins, Princeton scientists discovered.
Past findings had shown that stressful, unpleasant events could stifle brain cell growth in adults. To see if pleasant albeit stressful experiences could have the opposite effect, researchers studied the effects of sex in rats.
[...]
When compared with male virgins, both groups of sexually active rats had cell proliferation, or an increase in the number of neurons, in the hippocampus, a part of the brain linked with memory whose cells are especially sensitive to unpleasant experiences. The rats that had more sex also had adult brain cells grow, as well as a rise in the number of connections between brain cells. [...]
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Sex makes you smarter. Lack of sex increases stress hormones in males and these hormones inhibit adult brain cell growth.
Could a lack of sex be why husbands eventually get called "idiot" by their wives?
By Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience Contributor
posted: 28 July 2010 09:21 am ET
Sex apparently can help the brain grow, according to new findings in rats.
Sexually active rodents also seemed less anxious than virgins, Princeton scientists discovered.
Past findings had shown that stressful, unpleasant events could stifle brain cell growth in adults. To see if pleasant albeit stressful experiences could have the opposite effect, researchers studied the effects of sex in rats.
[...]
When compared with male virgins, both groups of sexually active rats had cell proliferation, or an increase in the number of neurons, in the hippocampus, a part of the brain linked with memory whose cells are especially sensitive to unpleasant experiences. The rats that had more sex also had adult brain cells grow, as well as a rise in the number of connections between brain cells. [...]
---
Sex makes you smarter. Lack of sex increases stress hormones in males and these hormones inhibit adult brain cell growth.
Could a lack of sex be why husbands eventually get called "idiot" by their wives?