Hypersexuality is a disorder characterized by unbridled sexual desire that is stimulated very easily, usually through sight. It is more common to refer to it as "sex addiction", although this terminology is not correct, since the scientific community attributes this evil to compulsive behavior and not to physical and psychological dependence. A new study has completely discarded this popular expression. Researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) have determined that the brains of those who suffer from hypersexuality do not act in the same way as those of drug addicts.
To obtain this conclusion, the scientists showed standard images and images of explicit sex to a sample of hypersexual men and women and analyzed their brain responses, especially the P300 response. This is triggered 300 milliseconds after viewing an image and increases when we observe something that causes us excessive interest. Thus, drug addicts experience a higher P300 response when viewing a substance. But in the case of hypersexuality, the brain response did not increase in general to sexual images but depended exclusively on the sexual desire of each participant.
The scientific community is inclined to think, therefore, that extreme sexual activity is related to compulsive behavior and that this responds more to the need to release stress than to experience pleasure.
