NPR and Ear Porn

I was driving to the Novi-Farmington area on Saturday, and happened to listen to NPR for part of the drive. I normally listen to music - CDs from Lansing until Brighton, and Detroit radio from Brighton to Novi. But I heard a little teaser that kept me tuned to NPR - it was about Q-Tips, and why it feels "soooo good" to clean your ears. Now, this normally might pique my interest a bit, but I would likely have gotten bored of listening to commercials and would've turned the station and would've forgotten to turn it back to NPR in time for the Q-Tip story. But the teaser indicated the radio personality really, REALLY liked shoving Q-Tips in her ears...maybe a little too much. I felt a little dirty just listening to the teaser. And I became interested in the scientific explanation for the joy one experiences when cleaning one's ears. My guess: nerve endings in the ear somehow connect to the "pleasure centers" in the brain, perhaps releasing endorphines...or something along those lines. And so I kept listening.

I'll be the first to admit that I clean my ears with Q-Tips every morning and every time after I swim. I keep it contained to the outer ear, and usually use the Q-Tip to absorb water that may be in my ears. That being said, I've not derived any intense pleasure from said cleaning. Maybe I've had poor penetration - perhaps I haven't shoved the Q-Tip in quite far enough into the ear canal to experience the exquisite joy the radio host seems to experience, as she asked the otologist why it felt "soooo goood" to stick that little cotton-covered stick in there several times.

The otologist went on to explain that there are in fact many nerve endings in the ear that connect to other parts of the body. He described how during the Roman orgies (not just the sex, but food, too), it was common to have vomitoriums, and a way to induce vomiting was to tickle the ear canal with a feather (ewww...). Obviously, once the Romans emptied their stomachs, they went back for more! But never once did the otologist actually explain why it seems to feel "soooo goood" to shove a Q-Tip in your ear. There was no discussion of neuropathways, pleasure centers, electrical stimuli, endorphines...just a little talk about Romans vomiting. Well, NPR, it's going to be very difficult to believe your teasers in the future!