The latest neuroscience tome I’ve been reading is called “Molecules of Emotion” by Candace Pert. Pert’s argument, which I believe is now mostly settled science (the book was written in 1997), is that the kinds of receptors the brain uses to sense neurotransmitters associated with emotions (oxytocin, serotonin etc.) can actually be found throughout the body. As a result, the tools used to experience emotion are not found merely to the brain, but the entire body (Pert refers to this as “mind-body medicine.”)

In one interesting section, Pert references a couple parts of the brain. The nucleus of Barrington is a section of the hindbrain associated with your ability to sense when you need to pee or poop, as well as sensing genital arousal. This nucleus connects into another brain component, the locus coeruleus, which is part of what’s been termed the “pleasure pathway” of the brain, and is rich in pleasurable opiate (the drug opium being a famous opiate) receptors.

What’s the gist here? The part of your brain that senses whether you need to pee or poo is connected to a part of your brain which responds to emotional and sexual pleasure. Pert ruminates…

Goodness, is it any wonder, based upon… neuroanatomical discoveries, that toilet training is loaded with emotional stuff! Or that people get into some unusual sexual practices involving bathroom behaviors!

However, she shies away from contemplating whether this explains the pleasure people find in anal sex. I recall a quasi-girlfriend of mine who claimed to like anal sex and explained its appeal thusly: “I just like that feeling of being ‘filled up.'” In the context that being “filled up” would seem to stimulate pathways going to the opiate sensing locus coerleus, this makes sense. (And, yes, I did fuck her in the ass, but, like months later.))

I recalled a poem a friend of mine wrote about a king in his declining years. It contained the line: “pleasures of the groin have turned to pleasures of the bowels.”