(CNN) — When Hilarie Cash arrives home from work in the evening, she has a choice: She can go outside and tend to her garden or she can hop on her laptop.
The lilacs really need weeding. The computer, on the other hand, can wait, as her work is done for the day.
Despite this, Cash feels drawn to the computer, as if it’s a magnet pulling her in. Maybe there’s an e-mail from a friend awaiting her, or a funny tweet, or a new picture posted on Facebook.
“I find it extremely difficult to walk away,” Cash says. “It’s so hard to tell myself, ‘Don’t do it. Go do the gardening.’ ”
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Read More… from Does life online give you ‘popcorn brain’? (2011)
COMMENTS: This article clearly shows that those with Internet addiction develop brain abnormalities that parallel those found in substance abusers. Researchers found a 10-20% reduction is frontal cortex gray matter in adolescents with Internet addiction. Hypofrontality is the common term for this change in brain structure. It is a key marker for all addiction processes. […]
Read More… from (L) High Wired: Does Addictive Internet Use Restructure the Brain? (2011)
It’s a common and erroneous belief that addiction equals “harm” to the brain, or that addiction is caused by “damage” to the brain. While certain addictive substances (meth, alcohol) can be neurotoxic, addiction is caused by a specific constellation of brain changes that are not necessarily classified as “brain damage”. Debunking the damage as addiction […]
Read More… from Does porn addiction cause irreversible damage to the brain?
COMMENTS: This a lay version of Dr. Hilton’s “Pornography Addiction: A Neuroscience Perspective”, that is found in this same section. he makes some interesting points about mirror neurons and deltafosb, that we have yet to discuss. He is convinced, as we are, that natural rewards can be addictive and cause the same fundamental brain changes as drugs. We emphasize how dopamine is affected by the novelty of Internet porn, the seeking of users, ever shocking material. Our point is that Internet porn is different from porn of the recent past in how it affects the dopamine systems.
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Read More… from Can Pornography Use Become An Actual Brain Addiction? (2011)
COMMENTS: This a lay version of Dr. Hilton’s “Pornography Addiction: A Neuroscience Perspective”, that is found in this same section. he makes some interesting points about mirror neurons and deltafosb, that we have yet to discuss. He is convinced, as we are, that natural rewards can be addictive and cause the same brain changes as drugs. We emphasize how dopamine is affected by the novelty of Internet porn, the seeking of users, ever shocking material. Our point is that Internet porn is different from porn of the recent past in how it affects the dopamine systems.
[…]
Read More… from (L) Can Pornography Use Become An Actual Brain Addiction? (2011)
COMMENTS: Drug addictions, food addictions, and pathological gambling all share common brain changes. One major change is a decline in frontal cortex volume and metabolism, called hypofrontality. This study shows that pedophiles also have hypofrontality. Pedohilia is considered somewhat like an obsessive-compulsive disorder, and OCD shares several commonalities with addictions. As of this posting, no one has performed brain scans of porn addicts. Nevertheless, this study indicates sexual compulsion may cause hypofrontality, which is seen in all addictions.
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Read More… from Structural Brain Abnormalities in the Frontostriatal System and Cerebellum in Pedophilia (2007)
COMMENTS: Nora Volkow is the head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and one of the top addiction researchers in the world. In 2007 she wanted to change the name of NIDA to National Institute on Diseases of Addiction to include pornography and other behavioral addictions. She knows – as do other researchers- that behavioral addictions involve the same mechanisms and pathways as drug addictions.
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Read More… from More Addictions, Less Stigma: Head of NIDA Wants Name Change to Include Porn, Food, Gambling (2007)
FULL STUDY: Brain Imaging Studies in Pathological Gambling
Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2010 October; 12(5): 418–425.
Published online 2010 July 30. doi: 10.1007/s11920-010-0141-7.
Ruth J. van Holst, Wim van den Brink, Dick J. Veltman, and Anna E. Goudriaan
Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, P. O. Box 22660, 1100 DD Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Read More… from Brain Imaging Studies in Pathological Gambling (2010)