Abstract
We tested the hypothesis that palmar sweat glands activation is expressed every time a mass sympathetic activation takes place. We performed (i) eleven palmar electrodermal recordings during sexual intercourse and orgasm of one male and one female student, (ii) 4 palmar electrodermal recordings plus heart rate during sexual intercourse and orgasm of the same couple, and (iii) 3 plantar electrodermal recordings during masturbation and ejaculation of 3 male students. High palmar electodermal activity was recorded during sexual intercourse but small during orgasm. The higher value of heart rate was recorded at the moment of orgasm. Sizeable plantar electodermal response was recorded during ejaculation after masturbation. We concluded that the palmar sweat glands activation cannot be considered as an indiscriminate following of sympathetic discharge.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Adelman, S., Taylor, C.R. & Meglung, N.C. (1975). Sweating on paws and palms: what is its function? The American journal of psychology 229, 1400–1402.
Chusid, J.G. (1979). The Autonomic Nervous System. In: Correlative neuroanatomy & functional neurology. LANGE Medical Publications, Los Altos, California.
Chrousos, G.P. (1992). Regulation and dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Endocrinology and metabolism clinics of North America, 21, 833–858.
Delerm, B., Delsaut, M. & Roy, J.C. (1982). Mesencephalic and bulbar reticular control of skin potential responses in kittens. Experimental brain research, 46, 209–214.
Dawson, M.E., Schell, A.M., Bratten R., J.R. & Catania, J.J. (1985). Diagnostic utility of autonomic measures for major depressive disorders. Psychiatry Research, 15 261–270.
Edelberg, R. (1973). Mechanisms of electrodermal adaptations for locomotion, manipulation, or defence. In: E. Stellar & J. M. Sprague (eds) Progress in physiological psychology, 5, 155–209. Academic Press, New York.
Fowles, D.C. (1986). The eccrine system and electrodermal activity. In: M. G. H. Coles, E. Donchin & S. W. Porges (eds) Psychophysiology: Systems, Processes and Applications, 51–96. The Guilford Press, New York.
Fowles, D.C, Christie, M.J., Edelberg, R., Grings, W.W., Lykken, D.T. & Venables, P.H. (1981). Publication recommendations for electrodermal measurements. Psychophysiology, 18 232–239.
Guyton, A.C. (1990). Reproductive functions of man. In: Human Physiology and Mechanisms of Disease, 716–727. Litsas Medical Publications, Athens.
Hoehn-Saric, R., & McLeod, D.R. (1988). The peripheral sumpathetic nervous system. Its role in normal and pathological anxiety. The Psychiatric clinics of North America, 11 (2), 375–386.
Isamat, F. (1961). Galvanic skin response from stimulation of limbic cortex. Journal of neurophysiology, 24, 176–181.
Johnson, L.C., & Lubin, A. (1966). Spontaneous electrodermal activity during waking and sleeping. Psychophysiology, 5, 8–17.
Kerassidis, S. (1994). Is palmar and plantar sweating thermoregulatory? Actaphysiologica Scandinavica, 152, 259–263.
Kushniruk, A., Rustenburg, J. & Ogilvie, R. (1985). Psychological correlates of electrodermal activity during REM sleep. Sleep, 5, 146–154.
Lacey, J.I. (1967). Somatic response patterning and stress: Some revisions of activation theory. In: M.H. Appley & R. Trumbull (eds) Psychological Stress (Issues in research), 15–42. Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York.
Ladpli, R. & Wang, G.H. (1960). Spontaneous variations of skin potentials in footpads of normal, striatal and spinal cats. Journal of neurophysiology, 23, 448–452.
Lazarus, R., Speisman, J.C. & Mordkoff, A.M. (1963). The relationship between autonomic indicators of psychological stress: heart rate and skin conductance. Psychosomatic medicine, 25, 19–30.
Lester, B.K., Burch, N.R. & Dosett, R.C. (1967). Nocturnal EEG-GSR profiles: the influence of presleep states. Psychophysiology 5:238–248.
Miller, N.E. (1969a). Learning of visceral and glandular responses. Science 163, 434–445.
Miller, N.E. (1969b). Psychosomatic effects of specific types of training. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 159 1025–1040.
Ost, L., Sterner, U. & Lindahl, I. (1984). Physiological responses in blood phobies. Behaviour research and therapy, 22, 109–117.
Sato, K.T., Kang, W.H., Saga, K. & Sato, K.T. (1989). Biology of sweat glands and their disorders. 1. Normal sweat gland function. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 20, 537–563.
Schaefer, H. (1960). Central control of cardiac function. Physiological reviews, 4, 213–231.
Shih, C.J., Wu, J.J. & Lin, M.T. (1983). Autonomic dysfunction in palmar hyperhidrosis. Journal of the autonomic nervous system, 8 33–43.
Turkstra, L.S. (1995). Electrodermal response and outcome from severe brain injury. Brain injury, 9, 61–80.
Venables, P.H. (1991). Autonomic activity. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 620, 191–207.
Venables, P.H., & Christie, M.J. (1973). Mechanisms, Instructions, Recording Techniques, and Quantification of Responses. In: W.F. Prokasy & D.C. Raskin (eds) Electrodermal activity in psychological research, 1–123. The Academic Press, New York.
Wallin, B.G. (1992). Intraneural recordings of normal and abnormal sympathetic activity in man. In: R. Bannister & C.J. Mathias (eds) Autonomic Failure. A textbook of clinical disorders of the autonomic nervous system, 359–377. Oxford Medical Publications, Oxford.
Wallin, B.G. & Elam, M. (1994). Insights from intraneural recordings of sympathetic nerve traffic in humans. News in Physiological Sciences, 9, 203–207.
Weitkunat, R., Buhrer, M. & Spätrer, B. (1990). Cortical initiation of phasic electrodermal activity. International journal of psychophysiology, 9 303–314.
Wilcott, R.C. (1966). Adaptive value of arousal sweating and the epidermal mechanism related to skin potential and skin resistance. Psychophysiology, 2 249–262.
Wilcott I., R.C. (1969). Electrical stimulation of the anterior cortex and skin- potential responses in the cat. Journal of comparative and physiological psychology, 69, 465–472.
Wilcott, R.C. & Bradley, H.H. (1970). Low-frequency electrical stimulation of the cat’s anterior cortex and inhibition of skin potential responses. Journal of comparative and physiological psychology, 72, 351–355.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Kerassidis, S. Electrodermal Recordings During Human Orgasm. Act Nerv Super 51, 147–151 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03379557
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03379557