A new study has shown those who watch pornography on a regular basis are more likely to see reduced brain activity in a number of areas. The new study sheds light on the habits of porn watchers and the gray matter volume in the brain, which they said is greatly reduced for those who regularly view porno films.
The German research, which was published in JAMA Psychiatry and looked at a small sample of people, is the first to link loss of brain functionality with the viewing of pornography. Researchers said those with smaller brain size are more prone to watching porn, but the researchers did say they could not determine definitively if watching porn leads to permanent loss of brain volume and activity.
The research also made it clear they could not discern whether a person is born more inclined to view porno films as compared with others.
The study's researchers questioned 64 healthy men aged 21 to 45 about their porn watching habits. They also examined how their brains reacted to pornographic images and took images of their brains in order to measure volume.
"Unfortunately we cannot answer this question based on the results of the present study," said co-author of the research Simone Kühn of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.
The researchers studies 64 healthy men aged between 21- and 45-years-old. The researchers questioned them on their porno habits and also imaged their brains while they were shown pornographic photos in order to gauge how their brain functions change.
"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.
One of the things they did discover was that in the men who watched a large number of porno films than others, their desire for reward and motivation was greatly reduced, linking motivation and porn together.
"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.
This could mean that those who watch a large amount of porno films are not as stimulated by their environment than others who are not avid watchers, leading to the belief that individuals who watch more porn are less likely to have a desire for personal relationships than those who don't.
