Men who watch porn have less brain grey matter
FELICITY NELSON
SATURDAY, 31 MAY 2014
Porn consumption has been linked to differences in the structure and
function of male brains

Image: PornHub
Men who watch porn have significantly less grey matter in their
brains, a new study shows. MRI brain scans of 64 men between 21 and 45
years of age were taken while participants were shown images of porn
and people exercising.
The participants were later requested to provide information about
weekly porn consumption via a phone interview. Every person in the
study volunteered to answer these questions, even though they were not
told that this information would be needed before commencing. The men
had a wide range of porn consumption averaging 4 hours a week.
Men with higher porn consumption had lower grey matter volumes.
Interestingly, when men were shown sexually explicit material during
the MRI scan, the region of the brain associated with motivation
showed reduced activity.
"Our findings indicated that grey matter volume of the right caudate
of the striatum is smaller with higher pornography use,"
researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in
Berlin, Germany told ABC Science.
The study could not show that porn caused men's brains to lose grey
matter. "Future studies should investigate the effects of pornography
longitudinally or expose naive participants to pornography and
investigate the causal effects over time", researchers told ABC
Science.
This research was published this week in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
Source: ABC Science
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&hl=en-CA&u=http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20143105-25589.html&source=s&q=Men+who+watch+porn+have+less+brain+grey+matter&sa=X&ei=OBqLU-OXGtOqyASxrYKQCg&ved=0CB4QFjAD
Original Investigation | May 28, 2014
Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With
Pornography Consumption
The Brain on Porn ONLINE FIRST
Simone Kühn, PhD1; Jürgen Gallinat, PhD2,3
[+] Author Affiliations
JAMA Psychiatry. Published online May 28, 2014.
doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.93 Text Size: A A A
Article Figures References Comments
ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT | METHODS | RESULTS | DISCUSSION | CONCLUSIONS | ARTICLE
INFORMATION | REFERENCES
Importance Since pornography appeared on the Internet, the
accessibility, affordability, and anonymity of consuming visual sexual
stimuli have increased and attracted millions of users. Based on the
assumption that pornography consumption bears resemblance with
reward-seeking behavior, novelty-seeking behavior, and addictive
behavior, we hypothesized alterations of the frontostriatal network in
frequent users.
Objective To determine whether frequent pornography consumption is
associated with the frontostriatal network.
Design, Setting, and Participants Sixty-four healthy male adults with
a broad range of pornography consumption at the Max Planck Institute
for Human Development in Berlin, Germany, reported hours of
pornography consumption per week. Pornography consumption was
associated with neural structure, task-related activation, and
functional resting-state connectivity.
Main Outcomes and Measures Gray matter volume of the brain was
measured by voxel-based morphometry and resting state functional
connectivity was measured on 3-T magnetic resonance imaging scans.
Results We found a significant negative association between reported
pornography hours per week and gray matter volume in the right caudate
(P < .001, corrected for multiple comparisons) as well as with
functional activity during a sexual cue–reactivity paradigm in the
left putamen (P < .001). Functional connectivity of the right caudate
to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was negatively associated
with hours of pornography consumption.
Conclusions and Relevance The negative association of self-reported
pornography consumption with the right striatum (caudate) volume, left
striatum (putamen) activation during cue reactivity, and lower
functional connectivity of the right caudate to the left dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex could reflect change in neural plasticity as a
consequence of an intense stimulation of the reward system, together
with a lower top-down modulation of prefrontal cortical areas.
Alternatively, it could be a precondition that makes pornography
consumption more rewarding.
Figures in this Article
Figure 1.
Brain Regions and Pornography Consumption
A, Brain region showing a significant negative correlation (r
64 = −0.432, P < .001) between hours of pornography consumption per
week (square rooted) and gray matter volume (Montreal Neurological
Institute coordinates: x = 11, y = 5, z = 3) and the scatterplot
illustrating the correlation. B, Negative correlation between hours of
pornography consumption per week and blood oxygenation level–dependent
signal during sexual cue–reactivity paradigm (sex cue > fixation)
(Montreal Neurological Institute coordinates: x = −24, y = 2, z = 4).
C, Negative correlation between hours of pornography consumption per
week and functional-connectivity map of the right striatum in the left
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
Figure 2.
Mediation Analysis
The negative association between gray matter (X) in the right striatum
identified in the voxel-based morphometry analysis and pornography
consumption (Y) is not strongly mediated by the functional
task-related activity in the left striatum (M), showing that
structural, as well as functional, effects contribute independently to
the prediction of pornography consumption.
a, b, ab, and c/c′ indicate path coefficients.aP < .05.bP < .001.
View Large | Save Figure | Download Slide (.ppt) | View in Article Context
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&source=s&u=http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx%3Farticleid%3D1874574&hl=en-CA&ei=dBqLU5aHKuGQsAe4hYDIAw&wsc=yh
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