 Light's dimmed, hands are everywhere, and our minds are moving just as fast as everything else. Yeah, we're talking about sex. We all know what happens on the outside. But until recently, we didn't realize that anything was happening on the inside. In earlier times, we looked to religious head figures for relationship and sex advice. It took a while for people to come around to the idea of sex and our sexual nature being something worth studying scientifically. One of those ideas that needed to be studied was how human beings respond to sexual stimuli. Before we can talk about the different theories on how we respond to sexual stimuli, let's explain what the body's sexual response cycle is as we know it today. What is a sexual response cycle? To put it simply, a sexual response cycle is how we respond mentally and physically to sexual stimuli. When we're talking about sexual response models, we're talking about how our brains respond to sexual stimuli and how that creates the changes in our bodies to prepare for sex. This is how researchers know there's a pattern for how most human beings respond, and if we can create a measure for it. There are multiple models or visual representations of our bodies' responses to sex. Each of these models talk about the sexual response cycle in a different way. And because human beings are unique, you might find that not all of them fit you. So, which one do you think fits you best? Let us know at the end of the video. Masters and Johnson, 1966 Today, sex is recognized as an important and healthy part of a relationship. When we have issues with sex now, it can be seen as a medical concern. But in the 1960s, it was a different story. It was a big deal when William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson began interviewing and physically assessing prostitutes, volunteers, and even themselves to understand how human beings responded to sexual stimuli. Using 11 years of research on 382 women and 312 men, their model suggested sexual response had these stages. Excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution. Now does this play out in real time? Well, it all starts with excitement. This is where sexual arousal begins. You see them cross the room, eyes locked, heart appound, and here we might start feeling the physical changes that come with sexual excitement. When we reach the plateau, that arousal has grown and intensified. This is the stage where you may be having sex or masturbating. It's the point where things are just feeling good. Plateau lasts until the orgasm phase, which is obviously where you have an orgasm. Most people might think this is where sexual response would end, but here there is also a resolution. That's where our bodies start calming down and returning to the pre-excited state. Kaplan, 1979 While the Masters and Johnson model is probably the most famous and widely used, it really focused more on what researchers observed in people. This means it was about physical rather than psychological or physiological response. Helen Singer Kaplan, a sex therapist, noted something was missing from this model. She adjusted Masters and Johnson's model so it could also apply to people who had sexual disorders. Her model had only three stages. Desire, arousal, and orgasm. Before this model, sexual response was believed to only happen physiologically, not psychologically. Adding the desire phase made people recognize that human beings could feel a need or urge for sex. This model came out at a time when sex was sometimes considered just another marital duty. So finding it had a psychological element was a unique idea. It recognized that sexual response starts in the brain and it's the body that responds. Whipple and Brash McGrear, 1997 Up until this point, researchers suggested that sexual response is linear, meaning each stage happens subsequently. But what if we didn't respond in a straight line? What if we repeated some stages over or even skipped one? That's one of the big things Beverly Whipple and Karen Brash McGrear considered in their model. They even went back to four stages. This time, the stages are seduction, sensations, surrender, and reflection. Seduction includes desire, so it would be where you might start feeling aroused. The sensations phase is where you start feeling the excitement and even the plateau stage. At that point, you're having sex and enjoying the excitement and sensations that come along with it. The surrender stage is the orgasm point, and reflection is the resolution. But this reflection also includes thinking about whether sex was enjoyable or not. If it wasn't, it might mean you decide not to engage in that connection again. Oh, and why is this circular and not a straight line? Well, this model assumed that women required their sexual encounters to be enjoyable in order to go again. So if they liked it, they would choose to engage again, thus creating a circle of sexual response. On top of that, they were also suggesting that women may require more in their own sexual response than men. Besson 2000 Each version of the sexual response cycle brings something unique to sexual research as a whole. Rosemary Besson's model was no different. She thought of different factors like being in a long-term relationship or how your gender can impact your response. We know men are from Mars and women are from Venus, but we didn't know that included how we get turned on. And back off, she recognized that testosterone was a key player in male sexual response, making it a biological function. But that wasn't always the case for women. She looked at different sexual disorders typically experienced by women, such as hypoactive sexual desire disorder, and considered how women's sexual response could often be more mental or psychological, and less biological. The Besson model is a bit more complex, since the stages aren't like the other models. We started a place of sexual neutrality. We're not feeling sexual, but we might be open to it if we find the right stimuli. When that stimuli hits, it triggers both the psychological and biological response. We might start experiencing desire or arousal, and we can go back and forth between the two. Now, unlike the other models, this one doesn't really discuss physical sex or orgasm, but it suggests that the goal of sex might be emotional intimacy and physical satisfaction, which for some might not be strictly orgasm. Without the intimacy and connection, it might mean you decide you don't want to continue having sex with this person. That bond is what helps the long-term relationship part. And it means you might not start sex each time at sexual neutrality. Then that's the gist of this model. It might not focus on the sex as much, but it does hit a lot of points that the straight line models don't. Like we said, sex affects everyone in some way or another. Heck, it's how you got here. Am I right? You might even be wondering, does this include those who identify as asexual? The answer is yes, I can. Even science knows inclusivity matters. In an article about asexuality, medical news today says, some who identify as asexual will experience arousal, and some will masturbate while having no interest in having sex with another person. There's a lot more research to be done and a whole lot more we can learn. Hopefully, this has given you a little more insight as to how research currently thinks about sexual response. No matter what model you relate to the most, sexual interest usually starts in the brain. And where the brain goes, the body usually follows.