A new laboratory study found that so-called Krause bodies, located in the clitoris and penis, respond to both vibration and gentle touch. These are very important pleasure points for a happy sex life.
The so-called Krause corpuscles (Latin: Corpuscula bulboideum), first described by the German anatomist Wilhelm Krause in 1860, are specialized sensors in the skin and mucous membranes, such as the genitals, lips, tongue and conjunctiva of the eye. In the penis and clitoris, they are ovoid or cylindrical, with nerves or nerve endings inside. Scientists managed to create a map of these bodies – their exact function has been an unsolved puzzle until now.
“Our research will help answer the 160-year-old question of how the so-called Krause bodies in the genitalia work,” Lijun Qi, PhD candidate at Harvard Medical School, told livescience.com.
To answer this difficult question, doctoral student Lijun and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School precisely counted the number of so-called Krause bodies in the genital organs of male and female mice. The number of blood cells detected in the penis and clitoris does not differ drastically, but the density of their placement differs – the density of blood cells in the clitoris is even 15 times higher than in the penis. Moreover, the analyzed mouse neurons are structurally very similar to human neurons.
The study showed for the first time that these cells are highly adaptive and highly sensitive sensors that provide feedback even when subjected to minimal mechanical stimulation. The researchers found that two different types of sensory neurons serving the Krause bodies in the clitoris or penis are sensitive to gentle touch and mechanical vibrations in the 40-80 hertz range.
One of the two types of Krause bodies did not respond to changes in temperature. Academics are currently testing the sensitivity of another type of Krause body neutrons to changes in temperature.
These sensory neurons belong to a unique region of the spinal cord near the center responsible for ejaculation.
To find out how Krause bodies affect sexual behavior, the researchers genetically modified mice so that the neurons were activated by pulses of laser light. The light pulses activated one type of nerve and caused an erection. By genetically reducing the functionality of the Krause bodies, male mice no longer sought copulation and ejaculation did not occur. Female mice also did not seek mating and did not respond to male initiatives.
This new study is a real breakthrough in this field, says Professor José A. Vega from the Department of Morphology and Cell Biology at the University of Oviedo in Spain. Equally interesting is the fact that the study authors used both “technologies and tools” to learn more about the functioning of these specialized structures: “These electrophysiological and behavioral experiments are original and novel.”
Interestingly, the frequencies to which the nerve cells responded are similar to those used in vibrators.
Nevertheless, the results of this study should be evaluated cautiously in the context of human physiology and the association of these nerve cells with sexual behavior, emphasizes J. A. Vega: “I would say that they are related to mating reflexes, not sexual behavior. We can not forget the role of the brain in human sexual behavior.”