A new study by University researchers suggests something that college students have known for decades: Sexual activity may lower stress.
The research, conducted on rats, found that sex also stimulates cell growth in the hippocampus, a region of the brain that plays a key role in spatial navigation and long-term memory.
Previous research had shown that unpleasant, stressful experiences increase anxiety and can stifle cell growth in the hippocampus, which is also associated with anxiety regulation. To investigate whether rewarding but stressful experiences had similar effects, three Neuroscience Institute researchers — Benedetta Leuner, Erica Glasper and psychology professor Elizabeth Gould — studied the effect of sex on hippocampal structure and function in adult rats.
In the study, published in the Public Library of Science journal in July, the researchers tested three groups of adult male rats for 14 days. The first group was introduced to sexually receptive female rats once during the experiment, the second group was introduced to sexually receptive females once daily, and the third group was exposed to sexually unreceptive females.
Both groups of sexually active rodents were less anxious than the rats that had had no sexual experience. The researchers tested anxiety levels through an experiment in which rats were allowed to consume food in a novel environment, with shorter delays indicating less anxiety.
When compared to the sexually inactive group, both groups of sexually active rats also showed an increase in the number of neurons in the hippocampus. The rats that had chronic sexual experiences also showed growth in adult brain cells.
Read the full story at the Daily Princetonian.
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