Thursday
October 16, 3pm
MDCL 2232
Colloquium announcement

Barry Komisaruk PhD 
Distinguished Professor
Department of Psychology,
Rutgers University, Newark
 
"Neuroscience of genital response and orgasm: fMRI evidence"
Dear MiNDS students & faculty,

I am pleased to invite you to attend the MiNDS Colloquium TODAY Thursday September
October 16th at 3:00 in MDCL 2232. Bring your coffee cup for coffee and cookies before the talk at 2:45.

Dr. Barry Komisaruk completed his Bachelors in Science at CUNY in Biology, his PhD in Psychobiology at Rutgers and a postdoc in Neuroendocrinology at UCLA. Dr. Komisaruk has been a faculty member at Rutgers  since 1966. He is currently a Rutgers University Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor, Distinguished Professor, Psychology Department, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Radiology. Other positions at Rutgers have included  Associate Dean of the Graduate School and Program Director in the M.O.R.E. Division National Institute of General Medical Sciences. 
 
Dr. Komisaruk's research funding comes via grants from NIH, NSF, Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, and NJ Commission on Spinal Cord Research and total over $12M. Barry shared the Hugo F Beigel Research Award in Sexuality with Dr. Beverly Whipple. His research specialty is the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system activity in sexual behaviour and physiology and pain control, in humans and laboratory animals, currently using fMRI. He has published over 155 research papers, 150 conference abstracts and 3 books.

Barry's talk will review the role of the genital sensory nerves in sexual behavior, hormonal response, analgesia, and orgasm, and their projection sites in the brain in women and men. The brain regions activated during orgasm in women will be identified. Unexpected findings of a genital sensory pathway that bypasses the spinal cord via the vagus nerves, of a non-genital projection to the genital sensory cortex, and of the surprisingly robust effect of mental imagery on brain activity, will be presented. Finally, new evidence regarding genital sensory pathologies will be presented.

We look forward to seeing you all at the talk today.

 

Regards

 

Sandra

 

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on behalf of... 

Kathryn M Murphy PhD

Professor and Director MiNDS Graduate Program

Dept of Psychology Neuroscience & Behaviour

McMaster University

1280 Main St W 

Hamilton ON L8S 4K1