THE "orgasmatrons" of Woody Allen's imagination may some day become a reality thanks to a group of American scientists who claim to have discovered the chemical which produces the female climax.
The researchers from Rutgers University in New Jersey say they have identified the so called neurotransmitter which causes the sensation of orgasm in the brain of aroused laboratory rats.
The breakthrough came after the scientists discovered that some women who had suffered severe spinal injuries could still have orgasms. Until now, doctors believed that people with such injuries could not experience sexual arousal.
The team, led by Prof Barry Komisamk, found that the chemical which creates the sensation of orgasm could travel by an alternative route, along the so called vagus nerve from the cervix to the neck.
"Contrary to what people may think, we discovered that women in the study who were paralysed and had no feeling below the breast area were, in fact, capable of having orgasm," Dr Komisaruk said.
A 1995 study measured the women's heart rates, breathing and blood pressure as they were stimulated sexually.
Ultimately, the researchers say they may be able to produce a pill which simulates the experience of an orgasm, a prospect which is certain to delight stand up comics as much as unsatisfied women.
The scientists warn that any orgasm pill is at least a decade away, however. "We're just into doing our basic research," said Ms Barbara Whipple, a member of the Rutgers team and author of the seminal 1982 tome, The G Spot and Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexualities.
Scientists had previously assumed that orgasms could only be triggered by stimuli transmitted along the spinal column. But of 16 women with spinal cord injuries who participated in the study, three were able to experience sexual arousal.
After identifying the "alternative" arousal route, the researchers experimented on mice to identify the chemical which created the sensation.
Those experiments helped lead to the isolation of the vasoactive intestinal peptide, which Dr Komisamk believes is the neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger, in the body that causes the orgasm sensation in the brain.