A magnified cross-section of the human clitoris’ dorsal nerve, which is primarily responsible for clitoral sensation. Each tiny, dark-blue dot packed inside the larger blue circles represents an individual nerve fiber of a dorsal nerve. Oregon Health & Science University surgeon Blair Peters, M.D., collected clitoral nerve tissue samples from seven volunteer patients. Matthew D. Wood, Ph.D., and Daniel A. Hunter of Washington University School of Medicine’s Peripheral Nerve Research Laboratory magnified samples under a microscope by 1,000 times and used image analysis software to count nerve fibers. The collaborative effort led Peters and colleagues to estimate that the human clitoris has more than 10,000 nerve fibers. (OHSU)
