Did you know that culinary delight and orgasm use some of the same parts of the brain? “The orbitofrontal cortex, where orgasm and taste perception overlap, is likely the critical region for the foodgasm. It isn’t the same as an orgasm, but it’s nothing to sneeze at either,” says John S. Allen, a Research Scientist at Dornsife Cognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center and the Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California.
While talking about neurons may not be your idea of foreplay, understanding how food relates to other pleasures of the flesh might be helpful to a sex magician. In the method of science, you might want to read The Omnivorous Mind.
- Read Allen’s essay on crispiness in the Chronicle Review
- Listen to a discussion with Allen on Science Friday with Ira Flatow
- Read an excerpt from The Omnivorous Mind at PopMatters
- On NPR’s All Things Considered, listen to John Allen discuss the human brain’s long-standing association, “food=love,” and why humans yearn for the sensation of crispiness
- Read more about the more titillating aspects of food at Smithsonian’s “Food & Think” blog
- Listen to a conversation with Allen on the Harvard University Press Podcast
- On the HUP Blog, Allen wrote about the powerful role that food plays in human memory
