Viewing pornography influences your relationships One study found that people exposed to significant amounts of porn thought that things like violent sex were twice as common as those not exposed to porn thought. When neural pathways connect your brain’s reward center with something harmful, it can overwhelm previously held beliefs about what’s unethical or inappropriate and make you think those things are normal. “Regarding Internet addiction, neuroscientific research supports the assumption that underlying neural processes are similar to substance addiction”- Neuroscience of Internet Porn Addiction, 2015 If enough of this reinforcing protein builds up, it can cause lasting changes to your brain that leave you even more vulnerable to addiction. This connection in turn results in greater demand for the activity, making it more and more likely that one returns to porn, according to the Neuroscience of Internet Pornography Addiction report. In effect, it creates neural pathways to connect what someone is doing to how they feel-in this case, strongly connecting pleasure to the act of watching pornography. When your brain’s reward center triggers the release of dopamine and related chemicals, it also releases a protein (DeltaFosB) that serves as a “reinforcer.” In short, when viewing pornography, your brain gets less pleasure while wanting more, often causing desensitization and an escalation in behavior.Ģ. Scans show this alters the dopamine reward center ( Guardian, 2013). In porn, we get “sex” without the work of courtship. The images get reinforced, altering the user’s sexual tastes.” Porn scenes, filled with novel sexual “partners”, fire the reward center. “Dopamine is secreted at moments of sexual excitement and novelty. Once the reward center is altered by “free” dopamine triggers like porn, it can lead to a person compulsively seeking out the activity that triggered the dopamine discharge. Research from the Neuroscience of Internet Pornography Addiction indicates that extended exposure to pornography correlates with less activity in the brain’s reward circuit. Over time, the brain builds up a tolerance to the excess dopamine and requires either more access or more extreme content (or sometimes both) to achieve that same level of perceived pleasure. In contrast, pornography impacts the brain much like an addictive drug by triggering ever-increasing amounts of dopamine. For most daily behaviors, the brain has an “off” switch that stops the release of dopamine once a craving has been satisfied. With pornography, however, the brain responds differently than it does with run-of-the-mill stimulation, like a sugary snack or a simple game. How porn affects dopamineĭopamine is known as a “pleasure” chemical it creates a link between certain habits and a “reward.” Activities like exercise, eating, and sex all trigger reactions in this part of the brain. It releases chemicals, including dopamine, which establish connections between actions and the perceived desirability of that action. There is an area in your brain known as the “reward center” that helps form habits. And is it bad? Let’s take a look at the scientific research.
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