Neurology Of Kissing

Almost no other animals kiss. Chimps and bonobos kiss but not with the kind of passion humans do.

Women value kissing more than men.


Kissing is like a taste test and a smell test. This isn't at all about breath, although I think we all can agree that stinky breath is lame. Researchers have discovered that there is a scent we pick up on when we are kissing -- and it's believed to be related to a person's DNA. Women are most attracted to the scent of a man who has a genetic code most different from themselves.


Some women give off a scent when they are ovulating that is picked up by men when they are kissing. It could be subconscious but it turns men on.


When you kiss someone for the first time, you get a spike in the neurotransmitter dopamine, making you crave more.




Dopamine can also make you lose your appetite and make it hard for you to sleep.




Two thirds of people tilt their head to the right when they kiss.




When you kiss someone your heart beats faster and more oxygen reaches your brain.
All thanks to neurotransmitters epinephrine and norepinephrine which promote the fight-or-flight response. And it makes your pupils dilate.
Which might be why we usually close our eyes.

Endorphins released during kissing bring on waves of euphoria.


You can thank your pituitary gland and hypothalamus for this natural high.

The muscle you use to pucker your lips is called the “orbicularis oris”.



Kissing triggers the release of oxytocin in your body.

Often called the “love hormone”, though that’s not all it does by a long stretch, oxytocin is involved in developing feelings of attachment. It’s thought to be what keeps the love in a relationship alive long after the initial honeymoon period (and dopamine spike) is over.





Women tend to rate kissing as more important in relationships than men do.





13. The world record for the longest kiss stands at well over two days with a kiss lasting 58 hours, 35 minutes and 58 seconds.

Your lips have a disproportionate number of nerve endings compared to other parts of your body.
As demonstrated on something known as the “cortical homunculus”.

When your lips touch someone else’s 5 out of 12 of your cranial nerves are engaged.You’re brain is basically trying to gather as much information as it can about the other person.

Over time, kissing lowers your levels of stress hormone cortisol, making you feel all safe and secure.





Lips are 100 times more sensitive than the tips of the fingers. Not even genitals have as much sensitivity as lips.

 Approximately two-thirds of people tip their head to the right when they kiss. Some scholars speculate this preference starts in the womb.



 The most important muscle in kissing is the orbicularis oris, also known as the kissing

 Indian Four Vedic Sanskrit texts (1500 B.C.) contain the first mention of a kiss in writing


 Passionate kissing burns 6.4 calories a minute. kiss contains 26 calories, which takes five minutes of walking

 Mechanically speaking, kissing is almost identical to suckling. Some scholars speculate that the way a person kisses may reflect whether he or she was breastfed or bottle fed

 Scientists believe that kissing may be a way of exchanging body salts or sebum that form relationships with parents and lovers, just as it does some birds. During mating, some birds chew food, then kiss-feed it to a prospective mate. If a bird’s sebaceous glands are removed so there is no sebum, its mate flies off.

 Kissing is good for teeth. The anticipation of a kiss increases the flow of saliva to the mouth, giving the teeth a plaque-dispersing bath.


 Indian Kama (desire) Sutra (type of verse) lists over 30 types of kisses, such as “fighting of the tongue.”


 Kissing may have originated when mothers orally passed chewed solid food to their infants during weaning. Another theory suggests kissing evolved from prospective mates sniffing each others’ pheromones for biological relation





 Diseases which can be transmitted through kissing include mononucleosis (“kissing disease”) and herpes. Contraction of HIV through kissing is extremely unlikely, though one woman was infected in 1997 when the woman and infected man both had gum disease. Transmission was likely through the man’s blood and not his saliva.



 Cunnilingus is a type of sexual kissing whereby a person stimulates the external female genital organs with the mouth or tongue. The word “cunnilingus” derives from the Latin cunnus (vulva, vagina) and lingua (tongue) or lingere (to lick up).

 The mouth is full of bacteria. When two people kiss, they exchange between 10 million and 1 billion bacteria.

 “X”s at the end of a correspondence letter represent the
contact of the lips during a kiss.
   
An act of kissing puts 29 facial muscles in motion. In other words, kissing can be used as an effective exercise to prevent the development of wrinkles.


Lovers swap saliva containing various substances e.g. fats, mineral salts, proteins while kissing. According to latest studies, the exchange of the above substances can give a boost to the production of antibodies which are made specifically to deal with the antigens associated with different diseases as they are encountered.


As a rule, 66 percent of people keep their eyes closed while kissing. The rest take pleasure in watching the emotions run the gamut on the faces of their partners.
 
A quick romantic kiss will burn about 2-3 calories, whereas French kiss (an open mouthed kiss with tongue contact) will obliterate more than 5 calories.
Sensitivity of the lips is 200 times higher than that of the fingers.