MRI scanner captures sex

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At one point or another, the thought may have crossed your mind of what goes on inside your body when you talk, drink, give birth, and even have sex. To set your curiosities to rest, over the years scientists have captured what various life activities look like using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. In a video posted by Vox, MRI scanners show a glimpse of what happens to the human body as it engages in activities, from drinking pineapple juice to having intercourse, Medical Daily reported.

Vox’s video montage is able to capture people speaking, kissing, and even playing an instrument through MRI scanners that create still and moving images with the help of strong fields that interact with protons inside the body. Unlike X-rays and computerized tomography (CT) scans, MRIs do not use harmful radiations, according to the Food and Drug Administration. This makes it possible for technicians to make images that produce a moving picture, and provide an impressive view of the human body and human life.

In one of the various clips, the MRI scanner captured a couple having sex in the missionary position. Originally, the footage was recorded by Dutch doctor Pek Van Andel in a hospital in Groningen in the 1960s. Van Andel and his colleagues used these images for their 1999 study, published in the British Medical Journal, which sought to reveal whether imaging of the male and female genitals during sex was feasible, and whether previous and current ideas about the anatomy during sex and during female sexual arousal were based on pure speculation or facts.

The MRI scans in the video show it is possible to capture female sexual arousal, and the physiological response of both male and female genitals during intercourse. The scans helped the researchers prove the penis does not have an S shape, but rather a boomerang shape in the missionary position, and the uterus does not increase in volume during sexual arousal. The team won an Ig Nobel Prize the following year for their discoveries.

Human functions like talking in different languages, playing the trumpet, giving birth, and defecating can all be seen in the Vox video above.

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