Kissing

(This ugly little fella is a "sensory homunculus" (sensory little human). He graphically represents the volume of sensory cortex devoted to each area of our bodies. Size is equivalent to sensitivity. This is why "he" has big hands, tongue, and lips. I suspect that many men would wish that another area were more exaggerated in size.)

I've always suspected that women enjoy kissing for its own sake more than men do. This might explain why women are better kissers. Or maybe that's just my particular bias. Anyway, this article was interesting:

"She found that in general, women judge their partners as potential mates through their kiss. They found that taste and smell were more important to women in a kiss, and that “Women were much more likely to say they would refuse to have sex with a bad kisser.”(quoted in Stein, 2008, p. 3)

The research also suggested that women were more likely to kiss just for the sake of kissing, while men were more likely to assume that kissing would lead to sex.

Another factor in the kiss is the overall sensitivity of the lips and mouth. The lips are one of the most sensitive parts of the body, and the tongue receives and sends huge amounts of information to the brain.

According to an article in the Washington Post, kissing has also been shown to lower cortisol (the stress hormone) in members of both genders. Some of their findings suggested that kissing might release oxytocin at least in males, a hormone which promotes bonding. So while many consider kissing to be no more than a amusing diversion, it turns out that, at least subconsciously, kissing means much more to us than we think."

Found in "The Importance of a Kiss" in "Psychology in the News"

CNN finally got in on this act with an article entitled "Pucker up: Scientists study kissing".

Much of the material is the same, but this was new:

"The first experiment, which took place in a student health center, looked at college students age 18 to 22, and examined hormone levels in 15 heterosexual couples. In the control group, participants held hands and talked with their partner while music played. In the experimental group, participants were told to open-mouth kiss their partner for the length of the music -- 16 minutes.

The results showed that oxytocin levels in the women decreased after the session, but increased in the men. Researchers had expected those levels to go up in both genders; the decrease for women may have resulted from the artificial setting of the student health center, researchers theorize.

A second experiment in a more romantic setting -- a secluded room with jazz music, flowers and electric candles -- looked at nine heterosexual couples and three lesbian couples.

Researchers found that the longer the relationship of a couple, the more the cortisol levels declined in both partners. The heterosexual women, moreover, said they felt greater intimacy with their partners than the heterosexual men or the homosexual women did, while all groups expressed equal satisfaction in kissing their partners. The researchers are in the process of analyzing oxytocin levels in this experiment.

On the basis of brain imaging, Fisher proposes that there are three distinct brain systems involved in mating and reproduction: sex drive, romantic love, and attachment. Sex drive compels us to seek partners, romantic love tells us to commit to one, and attachment helps us "tolerate this person at least long enough" to have a child, she said. Kissing evolved to stimulate all three of these systems, she said.

Kissing "can really either escalate a relationship or really kill it," Fisher said."

Having to listen to modern jazz would kill it for me!