What’s the key to a better orgasm? Expert reveals rhythm ‘helps you reach an altered state of mind’

IF orgasms seem like a bit of a mystery, don't worry - believe it or not, scientists haven't quite got to the bottom of them yet either.

But one neuroscientist trying to shed light on how orgasms work in the brain has found the key could be rhythm - and he even compares having an orgasm to having a seizure.

Adam Safron, a PhD student at Northwestern University, found rhythmic sexual stimulation can enhance brain activity that help you reach climax.

This process is called neural entrainment, and if sexual stimulation is intense enough and goes on long enough, the activity can spread throughout the brain.

Safron believes this could lead to such intensely focused attention that it creates a trance-like state. Furthermore, it's this trance which could be crucial for triggering climax.

In fact, he found in both orgasm and reflex seizures, rhythmic inputs resulted in an explosive process after certain stimulation thresholds were reached and surpassed.

Safron explained: "Synchronization is important for signal propagation in the brain, because neurons - a specialised cell carrying nerve impulses - are more likely to fire if they are stimulated multiple times within a narrow window of time.

"Otherwise, the signals decay as part of a general resetting mechanism, rather than sum together.

"This then caused me to hypothesize that rhythmic entrainment is the primary mechanism by which orgasmic thresholds are surpassed."

It's hoped this research could help people improve their sexual experiences by focusing more on rhythm.

Safron added: "Before this paper, we knew what lit up in the brain when people have orgasms, and we knew a lot about the hormonal and neurochemical factors in non-human animals, but we didn't really know why sex and orgasm feel the way they do.

"This paper provides a level of mechanistic detail that was previously lacking."