Why nipples stimulate the same area of the female brain as genitals do

When women’s nipples are stimulated the sensation travels to the same part of the brain as when their genitals are aroused, a study has found. Brain scans of women who made themselves aroused showed that the nipples hit the same spot as the vagina and clitoris.

Regardless of where the stimulation occurred on their body, the same area at the top of the brain ‘lit up’, the images show. The research confirms for the first time what many women have experienced themselves, even if men don’t believe it - that their nipples can be an erogenous zone too.

A team from Rutgers University in the U.S. asked 11 non-pregnant women between 23 and 56 to stimulate themselves while they lay inside a brain scanner.