BDSM offers a unique lens through which to examine the neuroscience of pain and pleasure. While pain is traditionally seen as a negative stimulus and pleasure as a positive one, BDSM disrupts this binary, showing how pain can be pleasurable and how power dynamics influence neurochemical responses. This class will explore the neurobiological, psychological, and evolutionary underpinnings of BDSM experiences, examining how pain interacts with the brain’s reward, pleasure, and stress systems. The lecture will cover the following:

1. role of the spinothalamic tract and periaqueductal gray (PAG) in nociception (pain perception)
2. different types of pain and pain sensitivities
3. in-built pain modulating systems (ex: endogenous opioids)
4. dopamine system in reward pathways
5. endocannabinoids during orgasm
6. adrenaline and its role in arousal
7. oxytocin and vasopressin during recovery
8. dissociation, pain fog and reduced pre-frontal cortex activity and its role in subspace