Thanks to MRI scanners, doctors can see how our bodies work in unprecedented ways.

But while they’re predominantly used to diagnose brain disorders, or discover what’s causing a persistent cough, for example, experts are also using them to learn more about more intimate movements.

Now a video has compiled the most insightful and interesting ways doctors have used these scanners to reveal what happens inside our mouths when we kiss, as well as the inner workings of of sex.

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The kissing video, entitled ‘The anatomy of kissing and love in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner’ (grab pictured) was uploaded by YouTube user Randomhero - but the original source is not listed. The clip reveals the movement of the tongues as they enter the other person’s mouth, as well as their heart rates

The kissing video, entitled ‘The anatomy of kissing and love in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner’ was uploaded by YouTube user Randomhero - but the original source is not listed.

The clip reveals what the video’s describes as the first time a French kiss has been captured in an MRI scanner.

It was recorded using a tesla field strength of three - a scale that determines how strong the magnets in the scanner are, ranging from 0.2 to seven.

The clip reveals the movement of the tongues as they enter the other person’s mouth, as well as the heart rates of both members increasing throughout.

In a separate clip, the Vox video also reveals what sex looks like through an MRI scanner, using a couple filmed in the missionary position.

Video courtesy of Improbable Research



This video was actually recorded during the 1960s by Dutch doctor Pek Van Andel in a hospital in Groningen.

Both the kissing and the sex video were created using hundreds of still MRI images stitched together to form a time-lapse.

Dr Van Andel, alongside gynaecology Professor Willibrord Weijmar Schultz, anthropologist Ida Sabelis and radiologist, Eduard Mooyaart, used the images as the basis of a scientific paper in 1999 called Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Male and Female Genitals During Coitus and Female Sexual Arousal.

The purpose of the study was to discover whether imaging of the male and female genitals during coitus was feasible.

They also wanted to find out whether ‘former and current ideas about the anatomy during sexual intercourse and during female sexual arousal were based on assumptions or on facts’.

In particular, they wanted to address claims made by Robert Latou Dickinson in 1933 that the penis formed an S shape when inside a female during sex.

They also studied the claims that the volume of the uterus increases during sexual arousal, as proposed by William Master and Virginia Johnson in 1964.

HOW DO MRI SCANNERS WORK? During a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, (scanner pictured) subjects lie in a strong magnetic field with radio-frequency waves directed at their body. Signals received by protons moving around the person's body can be combined to create a detailed image of inner organs During a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, subjects lie in a strong magnetic field with radio-frequency waves directed at their body. The field strength of MRI scanners is measured in tesla. Typically, scanners operate at 1.5, but systems range from 0.2 to seven. The body is made up of water molecules, which consist of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. At the centre of each hydrogen atom are protons that act like tiny magnets, and are sensitive to magnetic fields. When a person lies under the scanners magnets, the protons in their body line up in the same direction. Short bursts of radio waves are sent to certain areas of the body, knocking the protons out of alignment. When the radio waves are turned off, the protons realign and, in doing so, send out radio signals, which are picked up by receivers. These signals provide information about the exact location of the protons in the body. They also help to distinguish between the various types of tissue in the body, because the protons in different types of tissue realign at different speeds and produce distinct signals. These signals are combined to create a detailed image of inner organs. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

As a result of their research, the team concluded: ‘What started as artistic and scientific curiosity has now been realised.

‘We have shown that magnetic resonance images of the female sexual response and the male and female genitals during coitus are feasible and beautiful; that the penis during intercourse in the ‘missionary position’ has the shape of a boomerang and not of an S as drawn by Dickinson; and that, in contrast to the findings of Masters and Johnson, there was no evidence of an increase in the volume of the uterus during sexual arousal.’

A year later, the team won an Ig Nobel Prize.