How to make a masochist rat
- Hermes Solenzol
- Sep 8
- 2 min read
We can learn to love pain
If you place an electrified rod in the rat's cage, the rat soon learns to avoid it.
However, if you pair contact with the rod with optogenetic stimulation of the central amygdala (CeA) of the rat, it learns to want the pain delivered by the electric rod. It seeks the rod over and over again.
The CeA is the part of the brain that mediates stress and fear.
What happens in the experiment is that stimulating the CeA induces dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens, the key component of the reward pathway. This causes the rat to desire whatever is paired with the release of dopamine.
Applying this to BDSM, the fear and the pain at the beginning of a sadomasochistic scene activates the CeA, which is part of the flight/fight response. Then, the bottom partner learns to want the pain, just like the rat does.
The question is… does the masochist like the pain, or does he just wants it? These are different things.
There is also an important twist… The rat chooses when to touch the electrified rod to experience the pain. If the rat loses control over the pain, then it learns to avoid the rod instead of seeking it. Having control over the pain changes things completely.
It's the same for masochists. They have some basic control over a scene because they can stop it by using a safeword. Losing control over a scene (because it becomes non-consensual) turns a pleasant experience into a horrible one.
Reference
Positive Affect: Nature and brain bases of liking and wanting. Nguyen, D., Naffziger, E.E. & Berridge, K.C. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2021, Pages 72-78
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