Ending on a high note: Music can give you 'skin orgasm'
As if you needed more proof of the power of music. Adding another attribute to the known ones, a new study has suggested that musical notes can move some people so intensely that they feel like having an orgasm.
As if you needed more proof of the power of music. Adding another attribute to the known ones, a new study has suggested that musical notes can move some people so intensely that they feel like having an orgasm.
The sensation, known as skin orgasm, produces a feeling of pleasure so intense it can be felt all over their body, can produce trembling, sweating and even arousal, according to Daily Mail.
Wesleyan University psychology professor Psyche Loui and her co-researcher Luke Harrison said skin orgasm was a "uniquely accurate description of the spectrum of musically induced emotional phenomena".
The researchers said the term "implies a pleasurable sensation that is paradoxically both universal and variable. It affects different parts of the body depending on the person and circumstances of induction, and retains similar sensory, evaluative, and affective biological and psychological components to sexual orgasm".
Describing the phenomenon in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, they said the term rarely gets used due to its sexual connotations.
Instead, they suggest using the word "frissons" to describe the intense reactions listeners can have to music. Strong psychophysiological reactions are most commonly reported in response to western classical music.
However, Loui said the tendency for classical music to be seen as the main cause of these reactions may be more due to bias in research than anything unique about it. The researchers said other genres of music like pop, folk and those from elsewhere in the world also could also trigger similar responses.
