Pornography triggers in the brains of people who suffer from this addiction reactions similar to those caused by drugs, according to a study carried out by the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom). However, a new study delves even deeper into the brain activity of a porn addict, completely disproving this claim. How does the brain react? Is it confirmed to produce similar effects as drug addicts?
A team of scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles (USA) recruited 122 men and women, of which 55 of them reported having a problem of addiction to pornographic content . All of them underwent magnetic resonance imaging tests while viewing photographs classified as pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant. Half of the nice photos contained explicit sexual content.
When observing the brain activity of the participants through EEG, the researchers expected to see spikes or increases in brain activity when they observed erotic images, just as it happens with addicts to games or cocaine. However, the addiction to pornography does not follow the same pattern : instead of increasing brain activity in the areas where other addictions are activated, it decreased when they saw sexually explicit images . That is, the usual reactions in the brain of an addict were reversed in the brain of a porn addict.
“ This study provides clear evidence that pornography is not like other addictions. It means, by extension, that it is not appropriate to call porn addiction from a scientific perspective. In addition, this study includes more than double the number of participants compared to other more recently published research, ”explains Nicole Prause, study leader.
The study, which has been published in the journal Biological Psychology , concludes that pornography can cause problems for human beings but is not based on addiction . The key will have to be found elsewhere.
