SORRY BOYS: Watch a lot of porn? Your brain might suffer

[mountaineer]

SORRY BOYS: Watch a lot of porn? Your brain might suffer
Men who get their fix on the regular tend to have reduced brain buzzing in certain areas, scientists say. It’s the first study linking porn and a reduction in brain size and activity.

REUTERS / Wednesday, May 28, 2014, 6:01 PM
NY Daily News

Men who report watching a lot of pornography tend to have less volume and activity in regions of the brain linked to rewards and motivation, says a new German study.

The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, can't say watching porn caused the decrease in brain matter and activity, however.

It's not clear, for example, whether watching porn leads to brain changes or whether people born with certain brain types watch more porn, said Simone Kühn, the study’s lead author from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, in an email.

“Unfortunately we cannot answer this question based on the results of the present study,” Kühn said.

But, she noted, the results provide the first evidence for a link between pornography consumption and reductions in brain size and brain activity in response to sexual stimuli.

For the study, she and her colleague Jurgen Gallinat from Charite University, also in Berlin, recruited 64 healthy men between the ages of 21 and 45 years and asked them questions about their porn-watching habits. They also took images of the men’s brains to measure volume and to see how their brains reacted to pornographic pictures.

“We found that the volume of the so-called striatum, a brain region that has been associated with reward processing and motivated behavior, was smaller the more pornography consumption the participants reported,” Kühn said.

“Moreover we found that another brain region, that is also part of the striatum that is active when people see sexual stimuli, shows less activation the more pornography participants consumed,” she added.

What’s more, the researchers found that the connection between the striatum and prefrontal cortex, which is the outer layer of the brain associated with behavior and decision making, worsened with increased porn watching.

Because the study can’t prove that porn caused the changes to the brain, Kühn said it’s not possible to say whether watching porn is actually harmful.

“Everything is going to be bad in excess and it’s probably not terrible in moderation,” Dr. Gregory Tau of the Columbia University / New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York said.

Tau, who was not involved with the study, agreed that more research should be done in this area and that longer studies would be need to find out if porn leads to brain changes.

“It is possible that there are individuals with a certain kind of brain that are more susceptible to these kinds of behaviors,” he said. “Or, it’s possible it’s the excessive use (of porn) that’s perpetuating itself to causing brain changes. Or, it could be both.”

Kühn said other behaviors, such as driving a taxi, are linked to changes to brain size and functioning.

“Basically everything that people do very frequently can shape their brain structure and function,” she said.

JAMA psychiatry

[massadvj]

What about hairy palms? 

[EC]

It would be interesting to see if an increased consumption of porn decreases empathy.

[alicewonders]

It would be interesting to see if an increased consumption of porn decreases empathy.

You are what you eat and your brain is what you feed it.  The very essence of porn is treating someone like an object, that has to carry over in your real life. 

[GourmetDan]

The Virgin Killer's manifesto actually describes how he was emotionally traumatized by porn at a young age...

"Towards the end of sixth grade, I still hadn't made a group of friends who I could see outside of school. ... Joining chatrooms through AOL temporarily filled in the social void for a few weeks. This will definitely not be the first time I would try to fill in that void with the internet...

One friend who I met through a chat room suddenly emailed me pictures of beautiful naked girls, telling me to "check this out". When I looked at the pictures, I was shocked beyond words. I had never seen what beautiful girls looked like naked, and the sight filled me with strong and overwhelming emotions. I didn't know what was happening to me. Was it the first inkling of sexual desire in my body? I was traumatized. My childhood was fading away. Ominous fear swept over me, and I stopped talking to that person.

As the Sixth Grade year came to a close, I felt dissatisfied and insignificant. Indeed, a whole new world had opened up before me, and I had no idea how to prevail in it. I still wanted to live as a child."

and

"One time while I was alone at Planet Cyber, I saw an older teenager watching pornography. I saw in detail a video of a man having sex with a hot girl. The video showed...(deleted). I didn't know anything about sex at the time. I barely even knew what sex was. I was slowly starting to develop sexual feelings for hot girls, but I didn't know what to do with them. To see this video really traumatized me. I had no idea what I was seeing... I couldn't imagine human beings doing such things with each other. The sight was shocking, traumatizing, and arousing. All of these feelings mixed together took a great toll on me. I walked home and cried by myself for a bit. I felt too guilty about what I saw to talk to my parents about it. I was quite shaken for a few days.

This was among the very first glimpses I had of sex. Finding out about sex is one of the things that truly destroyed my entire life. Sex... the very word fills me with hate. Once I hit puberty, I would always want it, like any other boy. I would always hunger for it, I would always covet it, I would always fantasize about it. But I would never get it. Not getting any sex is what will shape the very foundation of my miserable youth. This was a very dark day."

[mountaineer]

You are what you eat and your brain is what you feed it.  The very essence of porn is treating someone like an object, that has to carry over in your real life.

I suspect that porn-addicted males don't have a clue how to treat females with respect.

[truth_seeker]

Female nudes have been carved, painted and now photographed for thousands of years.

I submit repression of human sexuality and sensuality, may be a greater cause of misbehavior, than open expression.

My sweet bride of over 46 years, gave me a book of Alberto Varga's picture art.

One person's art, is another person's porn, apparently.

The Santa Barbara killer is was mentally ill. Human nudity probably had nothing to do with his murders.

[Oceander]

my guess is that the causal relationship goes the other way - that is, people who have "less volume and activity in regions of the brain linked to rewards and motivation" are probably more likely to watch more porn - to the extent they're inclined to watch porn rather than engaging in other high-risk activities - because they need a bigger dose of sexual excitement to get the same mental reward - in other words, the bang for the buck is lower so more bucks - more time spent watching porn - must be spent to get the same end-result.

[massadvj]

my guess is that the causal relationship goes the other way - that is, people who have "less volume and activity in regions of the brain linked to rewards and motivation" are probably more likely to watch more porn - to the extent they're inclined to watch porn rather than engaging in other high-risk activities - because they need a bigger dose of sexual excitement to get the same mental reward - in other words, the bang for the buck is lower so more bucks - more time spent watching porn - must be spent to get the same end-result.

"Bang for the buck" 

(Sorry.  Beavis & Butthead moment)

[Oceander]

"Bang for the buck" 

(Sorry.  Beavis & Butthead moment)

you're so stag!   

[NavyCanDo]

Female nudes have been carved, painted and now photographed for thousands of years.

I submit repression of human sexuality and sensuality, may be a greater cause of misbehavior, than open expression.

My sweet bride of over 46 years, gave me a book of Alberto Varga's picture art.

One person's art, is another person's porn, apparently.

The Santa Barbara killer is was mentally ill. Human nudity probably had nothing to do with his murders.

The problem is we have moved way past the Vargas Girl, or the magazine you found under your dad's bed when you were 12, or the girl in the see-through negligee on the pin-up in your grandpa's work shop. In the 1970s men if they wanted to watch a porn movie had to go to a seedy theater in a bad part of town. The risk was too great for most, and if they did dare try it, they did so only once in a great while. Then came the video stores and the numbers of men between 18-34 who rented porn to watch at home was at 52 percent. Adult video rentals accounted for 25% of the video revenue. Now those are gone, replaced by something far easier, the internet, where with a few key strokes you can find free X-rated movies to watch any time you want, and with no age restriction.    In 1986 there was an estimated 1,500 mainstream adult movie titles released. By 1997 it skyrocketed to close to 7,970 new titles. Compare that number with 231 non-adult feature films released by Hollywood in that same year. Now should we mention the content of the adult films professional and amateur you can find on the web? Legal and illegal porn can be found by the youngest of web surfers. Some of the nastiest topics you can imagine, and some you can't imagine.

Deny if you must, but this dad of a 12 year old says, Houston, we have a problem.

[EC]

Someone I have written with in the past makes an excellent case that porn hs created the modern world.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18888_5-ways-porn-created-modern-world.html

[massadvj]

Someone I have written with in the past makes an excellent case that porn hs created the modern world.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18888_5-ways-porn-created-modern-world.html

It is true that the early adopters in media technology are often from the porn market.  I have no doubt this will be the case with the new Occulus Rift virtual reality headset coming out very soon.

As an aside, it must be an interesting time to be a freelance writer.  A few years ago, you'd have made your living creating quizzes that told the reader what kind of insect, or flower, or planet he'd be if he was a planet.  Now you just complete the headline: "The 5 shocking (or weird) ways that.... "

[NavyCanDo]

Someone I have written with in the past makes an excellent case that porn hs created the modern world.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18888_5-ways-porn-created-modern-world.html

Like the article says, I do remember  saying once back at the introduction of the VHS player, "Why would anyone pay $800 for one of these?" This was right after I left the navy,  at a time when rental stores were just starting to pop up, and they were just the small stores not your large retailers. The selection of mainstream Hollywood movies was not large, and those available to purchase if you wanted to own one, was around $75. About a year later I was over at a friends house, who had a VHS player and the adult movie from 1980, Taboo. I remember thinking, "holy crap, you can do this?". The very next day, I used a credit card and purchased a VHS player. I still remember what I paid for it, $888.00 and I quickly began supporting the new porn movie rental market.  This is the power of porn, this is the power of a sex-obsessed culture. Once trapped by the deception of pornography, you are in a horrible battle, and sad to say; many families, including Christians, are being torn apart by the use of pornography.

[truth_seeker]

The problem is we have moved way past the Vargas Girl, or the magazine you found under your dad's bed when you were 12, or the girl in the see-through negligee on the pin-up in your grandpa's work shop. In the 1970s men if they wanted to watch a porn movie had to go to a seedy theater in a bad part of town. The risk was too great for most, and if they did dare try it, they did so only once in a great while. Then came the video stores and the numbers of men between 18-34 who rented porn to watch at home was at 52 percent. Adult video rentals accounted for 25% of the video revenue. Now those are gone, replaced by something far easier, the internet, where with a few key strokes you can find free X-rated movies to watch any time you want, and with no age restriction.    In 1986 there was an estimated 1,500 mainstream adult movie titles released. By 1997 it skyrocketed to close to 7,970 new titles. Compare that number with 231 non-adult feature films released by Hollywood in that same year. Now should we mention the content of the adult films professional and amateur you can find on the web? Legal and illegal porn can be found by the youngest of web surfers. Some of the nastiest topics you can imagine, and some you can't imagine.

Deny if you must, but this dad of a 12 year old says, Houston, we have a problem.

Penthouse started in 1965, 49 years ago. I bought it to occupy my mind, as a young soldier overseas.

The movie "Deep Throat" came out in 1972, over 42 years ago. However once the novelty of such videos wore off, it became no particularly big deal.

It seems to me to not be a particularly big deal now, either. Not a major political issue.

But apparently being bothered perpetually about others' behavior is a basic component of social conservatism.

In my real estate office  one cannot access "porn" sites, on their devices or with their internet access on your own devices.

Parents can likewise control their 12 year olds, to the extent parents anytime or anywhere can control their children.

When I was 12, our minister ran away with my Dad's secretary. Both left behind spouses and families. I lost my naiive ideas about religious figures.

[olde north church]

It's remarkable how people will mock studies and those who author them until they find one to agree with. 

[NavyCanDo]

Penthouse started in 1965, 49 years ago. I bought it to occupy my mind, as a young soldier overseas.

The movie "Deep Throat" came out in 1972, over 42 years ago. However once the novelty of such videos wore off, it became no particularly big deal.

It seems to me to not be a particularly big deal now, either. Not a major political issue.

But apparently being bothered perpetually about others' behavior is a basic component of social conservatism.

In my real estate office  one cannot access "porn" sites, on their devices or with their internet access on your own devices.

Parents can likewise control their 12 year olds, to the extent parents anytime or anywhere can control their children.

When I was 12, our minister ran away with my Dad's secretary. Both left behind spouses and families. I lost my naiive ideas about religious figures.

If I found a 1965 Penthouse under my 12 year olds mattress I might be a little relieved, just having the assurance that he likes girls. But this isn't 1965, and the magazines are  far far nastier today. This isn't the porn of our fathers. What is available with just a few clicks I won't even dare to describe here.  And yes I can control to a great degree what he sees in our home, but at a friends house, I have no control at all, and that is where he is most likely to be exposed to his first hard core magazine or internet video. Knowing the power of this addiction first hand, I fear for him.

[GourmetDan]

Someone I have written with in the past makes an excellent case that porn hs created the modern world.

I have read that the purpose of porn is to teach heterosexuals to behave like homosexuals always have.

Looking at sexual behavior today, I would have to agree...

[EC]

It's been around a long time. Some of the oldest art we have is basically porn.

[GourmetDan]

It's been around a long time. Some of the oldest art we have is basically porn.

Which only means that the technique is nothing new...

[Dexter]

It's a risk I am willing to take.

[mountaineer]

And then there's this ...   

Truck Driver Watching Porn Before Fatal Crash


A judge told a truck driver who ploughed into a car sitting on the side of an English highway the crash would have been "utterly avoidable" if the man had not been looking at porn.

Ian Glover was browsing pornographic images on his mobile phone when he crashed into a broken-down car at 90km/h, sending it careening through the safety barrier, Metro reports.

Laura Thomas, 20, died as she was being airlifted to hospital while her fiancé Lewis Pagett suffered serious head injuries and a fractured vertebra.

Mr Pagett, also 20, said he and Ms Thomas had known each other since they were 13 and were "so excited to spend the rest of lives together".

"Laura and I were looking forward to planning our wedding — instead, I ended up planning her funeral," Mr Pagett said.

Glover was browsing two different porn websites at the time of the crash last July.

He admitted to dangerous driving in a Shrewsbury Crown Court and sentenced to five years in prison.

Judge Robin Onions told the truck driver: "You were on these sites at the point of impact. For many miles, you were not paying proper attention. This was utterly avoidable."

link

[Atomic Cow]

Finally, an explanation for what is wrong with one of my coworkers.