A couple agreed to have sex inside an MRI scanner for science. The result? Well, the video and images revealed something researchers had never seen before.
It sounds like something straight out of a movie. However, the unusual experiment really took place back in 1991. Dutch couple Ida Sabelis and her boyfriend, Jupp, decided to accept the opportunity to take part in a study led by scientist Menko Victor “Pek” van Andel.
The goal: What is really happening inside the human body when having sex? But while it sounds like a romantic experiment, it was far from it.
The couple had to squeeze into the narrow scanner while researchers watched from a nearby control room. They were also instructed to hold still for several seconds at a time so the machine could capture the images.
“It wasn’t romantic, it was more like an act of love and a performance,” Ida later recalled.
The couple eventually settled on a spooning position because there simply wasn’t enough room for their original plan.
But the results made the unusual experiment worthwhile. The MRI images revealed details about the body’s movements during intercourse, challenging long-held assumptions about female anatomy.
Couple make love inside an MRI scanner
The findings were later published in the British Medical Journal in 1999, in a study that became one of the journal’s most popular articles.
More than three decades later, the experiment still fascinates people online—and Ida’s account of what happened inside the scanner is as memorable as the scientific discovery itself.
But Ida and Jupp aren’t the only ones who have done this. Another couple, Sven and Michaela, also did. They wanted to learn more about what happens in the body, right from the start of foreplay.
Everything was recorded for the BBC’s show The Human Body: Secrets of Your Life Revealed.
“An unstoppable craving”
A voiceover read what happened, explaining, “The brain sends signals to the adrenal gland, which secretes a hormone, adrenaline, causing the heart to beat faster and stronger.”
“Nerve cells in our brain release dopamine, also known as the reward hormone, and all this gives us an unstoppable craving, and focuses our attention on our loved one. This is to ensure one thing happens… The smallest cell of the body, the male sperm, unites with the largest cell, the female egg.”
See video here
What are your thoughts on this? Please share your opinion in the comment section.
Read more:
