Porn has been blamed for a number of bad things happening in society today. But is it getting a bad rap? What does pornography do (or not do) to the human brain and is there something we can do about it?
Below we tackle those questions by showing you three things that really happen to the human brain after watching porn.
1. Sexually explicit material triggers mirror neurons in the male brain. These neurons, which are involved with the process for how to mimic a behavior, contain a motor system that correlates to the planning out of a behavior. In the case of pornography, this mirror neuron system triggers arousal, which leads to sexual tension and a need for an outlet.
Experts say, “The unfortunate reality is that when a man acts out (often by masturbating), this leads to hormonal and neurological consequences, which are designed to bind him to the object he is focusing on.” Meaning that is the thing that now turns him on instead of your mate.
2. You may like porn better than the real thing (yikes!). In men, there are five primary chemicals involved in sexual arousal and response. The one that likely plays the most significant role in pornography addiction is dopamine.
Dopamine plays a major role in the brain system that is responsible for reward-driven learning.
Every type of reward that has been studied increases the level of dopamine transmission in the brain, and a variety of addictive drugs, including stimulants such as cocaine, amphetamine, and methamphetamine, act directly on the dopamine system.
Dopamine surges when a person is exposed to novel stimuli, particularly if it is sexual, or when a stimuli is more arousing than anticipated. Because erotic imagery triggers more dopamine than sex with a familiar partner, exposure to pornography leads to “arousal addiction” and teaches the brain to prefer the image and become less satisfied with real-life sexual partners.
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3. Porn may affect your decisions. German researchers recruited 64 men between the ages of 21 and 45 who watched an average of four hours of pornography per week.
The researchers did MRI scans of men’s brains while showing them a mixture of sexually explicit images and non-sexual imagery.
"Our findings indicated that gray matter volume of the right caudate of the striatum is smaller with higher pornography use," the researchers wrote in the journal article, referring to an area of the brain associated with reward processing and motivation.
Men who watched more porn also showed less activity in another area of the striatum, called the left putamen, which usually lights up in response to sexual images.
Heavy porn consumers also had a weaker connection between the striatum and the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain associated with decision-making.
"Dysfunction of this circuitry has been related to inappropriate behavioral choices, such as drug-seeking, regardless of the potential negative outcome," the researchers wrote in the article.
So what does all this mean? Experts on the other end of the spectrum say that some porn can actually help relationships. Also, some therapists recommend watching it with your mate at times.
But with everything moderation. And when the brain starts focusing on anything that is outside of its control (drugs, porn, alcohol, etc), then it's a problem.
