If you watch a lot of soft porn, you may want more extreme stuff in the future. Porn, suggests a new study, influences the structure of your brain: in fact, it might even make your brain shrink.
Men who watch large amounts of sexually explicit material have brains with smaller reward systems, a study finds.
“That could mean that regular consumption of pornography more or less wears out your reward system,” says Simone Kühn, psychologist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and lead author of the окуу, published in the “JAMA Psychiatry” journal.
Your reward system is a collection of neural structures in the brain that regulate and control behavior by inducing pleasure.
The researchers scanned the brains of 64 men aged between 21 and 45 with a MRI machine.
Those probands – or study subjects – who watched porn often had a smaller striatum, which is an important part of the reward system and also involved in sexual arousal.
The study also found that the reward systems of porn-experienced men were less active when they watched sexually arousing pictures inside the MRI machine.
“We assume that probands with a high porn consumption need increasing stimulation to receive the same amount of reward,” Simone Kühn says.
Consequence or precondition?
Бирок минет издеп аз striatum менен адамдар, анткени алар болгон тышкы дем керек, же порнонун жогорку керектөөсү Мээнин бул бөлүгүн майда кылып көрсөткөн?
изилдөөчүлөр да ушуну айтууга болот моюнга алышат. Бирок алар экинчи мүмкүн дешет.
Кун психологиялык, илимий адабияттарды иштеп порнонун керектөөчүлөр роман жана өзгөчө жыныстык оюндар менен материалды издешет болот дейт.
"Ооба, мен сизди алардын сыйлык системалары өсүп дем керек гипотезага дал келет."
A brain scan can reveal a lot.
In future studies the researchers plan to observe brain changes in study subjects over a period of time to see whether the reward system really changes with increasing porn consumption.
Like cocaine and gaming
Kühn says the team had predicted it would observe changes in the reward system – but the opposite of what it ultimately found.
The striatum is also involved in drug addiction.
2001-жылы, изилдөөчүлөр that reward-system-related brain parts were up to ten percent larger in cocaine addicts than in non-dependent probands.
And as if that wasn’t enough: “In a study with teenagers we found that frequent PC games playing leads to an increase in the size of the striatum,” says Kühn. But she notes she was surprised to see that male porn-watchers had smaller – not larger – striatum than the other men in the study.
She says she had expected porn consumption to increase the size of the reward system – rather than make it shrink.
Is porn addiction real?
“Pornography is no longer an issue of minority populations but a mass phenomenon that influences our society,” the researchers write in the journal, adding that an estimated 50 percent of all Internet traffic is related to sex.
Psychiatrists have been debating whether it is possible to develop an addiction to porn. But they have yet to even agree on a clinical definition of pornography addiction.
In February, psychiatrists wrote in “Current Sexual Health Reports” that there is no such thing as porn addiction. There was no sign, they wrote, that use of pornography causes any changes to the brain.
This latest research may change their minds.
JAMA Psychiatry, online May 28, 2014.
Макалалар
- Порнографияны көрүү эркектердин мээсине зыян келтирет
- Порно эркектердин мээсин кыскартып жатабы?
- Porn may be messing with your head
THE ABSTRACT (ТОЛУК ИЗИЛДӨӨ)
Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With Pornography Consumption. The Brain on Porn
2Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité University Medicine, St Hedwig-Krankenhaus, Berlin, Germany
3University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf, Clinic and Policlinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hamburg, Germany
мааниге ээ порнография интернет пайда болгондон бери, көрүү жыныстык сигналдарды керектөө жөнүндө маалыматтардын жеткиликтүүлүгү жана анонимдүүлүк жогорулап, миллиондогон колдонуучулар тартылган. порнография керектөө аюулар сыйлык-издеп жүрүм-туруму, жаңылык издеген жүрүм-туруму жана көзкаранды жүрүм-туруму менен окшош деген божомолго таянып, биз тез-тез пайдалангандардын frontostriatal тармагынын өзгөртүүлөр гипотеза.
объективдүү тез-тез порнография керектөө frontostriatal тармагы менен байланыштуу экенин аныктоо үчүн.
Дизайн, коюу жана катышуучулары Берлин, Германия Адам өнүгүүсү боюнча Макс Планк институтунун порнография керектөөнүн бир катар менен алтымыш төрт кемтиги кишилер, жумасына порнография керектөөнүн саат билдирди. Порнография керектөө нейрон түзүлүшү, милдети менен байланышкан кошулуу, ошондой эле иш-эс-мамлекет байланышы менен тыгыз байланышта болгон.
Негизги жыйынтыктар жана иш-чаралар мээнин боз зат көлөмү voxel негизделген гистология жана эс мамлекеттик иш байланыш 3-T магниттик-резонанстык сканерлери багаланады тарабынан өлчөнгөн.
натыйжалары Биз туура caudate жуманын жана боз зат көлөмү билдиришти порнография саат ортосунда олуттуу терс пикир (P <.001, бир нече жолу салыштыруу үчүн оңдолгон), ошондой эле сол путаменде жыныстык белгилөө-реактивдүүлүк парадигмасы учурунда функционалдык активдүүлүк менен (P <.001). Оң капталдын сол dorsolateral prefrontal кабыгына Функционалдык туташуусу порнография керектөө саат менен терс байланыштуу болгон.
Тыянактар жана мааниси сол dorsolateral prefrontal кортекске оң caudate туура striatum (caudate) көлөмдө, сол striatum (putamen) кий Reactivity учурунда жандандыруу, жана төмөнкү иш байланышы менен өзүн-өзү билдирди порнография керектөөнүн терс бирикме катары нейрон пластикалык бир өзгөрүүнү чагылдырбоого мүмкүн сыйлык системасынын күчтүү дем натыйжасы чогуу prefrontal кабык аймактарында бир аз жогорудан-төмөн тездиги менен. Же болбосо, ал порнография керектөө алда канча арзырлык кылат өбөлгө болушу мүмкүн.
COMMENTS ON STUDY BY MD RESEARCHER, D.L. Hilton
Basically, this confirms what we predicted based on the neuromodulation data and our DNA work: that pornography as a powerful learning template would structurally alter reward systems. This is a well designed, well executed study, and it is published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In their conclusion, the authors give support to pornography causing this neuroplastic change. However, they appropriately state that because it is not a longitudinal study and is therefore correlative they can not affirm causation. In other words, did porn cause the changes, or were the changes already there and therefore those that watch porn did so because they were pre-programmed to do so?
They did not refer to any other neuroplasticity paper in their discussion, however, and that needs to be done. I will add this to a paper I am currently writing.
In the context of these other studies on structural change (which are longitudinal), the DeltaFosB work, and our DNA work from PNAS I think this is a compelling piece of the argument. This dovetails nicely with Dr. Voon’s [Cambridge] soon to be published sensitization work.
[Comparison with Voon’s upcoming study]
The new German study uses different tasks with brief static images of pornography (deliberately brief) compared to sports images and show decreased putaminal activity suggesting a role for desensitization correlating with degree of porn use in regular users of pornography. [The Voon] study focuses on video clips which may be more engaging and motivating and studies a categorical diagnostic group who endorse having difficulties with use and control of the behaviour. The findings are not incompatible as the populations and task design differ.
[The German study looked at] the dorsolateral striatum (more involved in motor tasks and habits) whereas [the Cambridge study] focus is on the ventral striatum although dorsal anterior cingulate and amygdala are also crucial regions.
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