Pornography remains a controversial topic. Previous experiments have confirmed the impact that stimulation of the pleasure center has on the brain through the excess of explicit sexual content. Now, various studies go even deeper into this topic: what exactly does it do in our brain?
High consumption of pornography can alter the structure and functioning of our brain causing addiction or addictive behavior to emerge. Both having sex and watching them lead to the release in the brain of a substance called dopamine (a brain neurotransmitter related to motor functions, emotions and feelings of pleasure).
The difference from having sex is that porn produces a kind of “flood” of dopamine . Excessive discharge of this hormone can cause cardiovascular, kidney, stomach or endocrine disorders, among others. But in addition, when this discharge occurs, the body needs to produce them again , so they promote the repetition of this behavior and can lead to a vicious circle that leads the individual to lose the ability to govern their own body.
The brain, meanwhile, reduces its activity in the reward centers . The more porn you view, the less activity, a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry found . This causes the brain to need more dopamine to feel the same effect. It offers us a compelling reason to see more pornography again.
” Brains respond to chemical change . When dopamine is released and there is a sensation of pleasure, the primitive brain sends the message to repeat the behavior of the desired sensation, ”explains Joe Schrank , an addiction specialist.
Thus the mind of a person dependent on pornography is presented with a constant need to feel strong stimulation. That is why the brain of a high consumer of explicit sexual content is compared to that of a person with alcohol dependence or a drug dependent person. Without going any further, a study published in the journal PloS One and carried out by the University of Cambridge (England) revealed that the striatum or striatum – which plays an important role in the reward center of the brain – was equally illuminated when it came to both alcohol and pornography dependent people by showing them images of their object of desire.
The scientists found that three specific brain regions were much more active in people addicted to these sexual contents : the striatum, the anterior cingulate cortex (executive control, emotional control) and the amygdala (sentinel of emotions). In addition, viewing too much pornography also modifies the size of our brain . In another study conducted by the Max Planck Institute (Germany) in 2014, researchers found that the volume of the brain’s striatum decreased the more porn they watched.
” We found an important negative link between the act of viewing pornography several hours a week and the volume of gray matter in the right lobe of the brain, as well as the activity of the prefrontal cortex,” explained the study authors.
