Too Much Porn Can Shrink Brain: Study

Watching sexually explicit videos regularly may cause the brain to shrink and work less effectively , a new study has claimed. The study suggests that the brains of heavy porn users show signs of degradation and shrinkage. 

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin found that men who watch a lot of porn tend to have a smaller striatum, an area of the brain "linked to rewards and motivation." They also found that the connection between the striatum and the prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain associated with behaviour and decision making — degraded with increased porn watching, 'The Telegraph' reported. 

They also found that the connection between the striatum and the prefrontal cortex - the part of the brain associated with behaviour and decision making degraded with increased porn watching, 'The Telegraph' reported.

Although the study suggests that porn causes the brain to shrink, researchers cautioned it could be that people with smaller brains are more attracted to porn.

Pornography consumption was associated with neural structure, task-related activation, and functional resting-state connectivity.

Gray matter volume of the brain as measured by voxel-based morphometry and resting state functional connectivity was measured on magnetic resonance imaging scans.

"We found a significant negative association between reported pornography hours per week and gray matter volume in the right caudate as well as with functional activity during a sexual cue–reactivity paradigm in the left putamen," researchers wrote in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

"Functional connectivity of the right caudate to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was negatively associated with hours of pornography consumption," they said.

For the study, sixty-four healthy male adults with a broad range of pornography consumption reported hours of pornography consumption per week. "We found a significant negative association between reported pornography hours per week and gray matter volume in the right caudate," researchers said.

Heavy porn consumption may shrink your brain

Watching porn may not only lead to divorce but can also reduce your brain size.

German researchers have found less gray matter in brains of men who consumed sexually explicit material heavily.

"Our findings suggest that gray matter volume of the right caudate of the striatum (a subcortical part of the forebrain) is smaller with higher pornography use," said the study.

To analyse the impact of porn on brain, researchers questioned 64 men aged 21-45 about their porn-watching habits and scanned their brains with MRI technology.

"The results show that the brain region activated when people view sexual stimuli is less active in men who watch a lot of pornography," explained lead author Simone Kohn from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.

It is the first link between porn consumption and reductions in brain size and brain activity in response to sexual stimuli.

"It is not clear from the findings whether watching porn leads to brain changes or whether people born with certain brain types watch more porn," Kohn noted.

The study was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

Watching pornography could be shrink parts of the brain linked to reward and motivation.This is according to a German study that found men who watched a lot of porn tended to be lazier. The results provide the first direct link between pornography and a lack of motivation following sexual stimulation

PTI