Sex and its many associates, including masturbation and pornography,
are, no doubt, increasingly becoming subjects of public discourse for
the good and bad reasons. But one sexual-related activity that is
currently witnessing an all-time high patronage is pornography.
It
is simply defined as printed or visual materials containing the
explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended
to stimulate sexual excitement or enhance libido.
Worthy of note,
however, is that watching or looking at pornographic items is one of
the ways people explore their sexual fantasies, even though it has
largely been condemned by many, especially religious organisations. It
is hitherto embraced by singles, married, young and old, even though
most porn watchers do so in their closet.
Regardless,
pornography, which has been found to be addictive, is gaining more
grounds as it now dominates people’s devices, such as phones, computers
and even library.
In fact, a report
released by pornhub, a website for sexual contents, in 2014 showed that
the number of pornographic views on its website rose from 63.2 billion
video views in 2012 to 78.9 billion views in 2013, and that phones
accounted for 45 per cent of these views, while desktop was 44 per cent
and views on tablets rose by 20 per cent to account for its 11 per cent.
Thus,
the website declared 2014 as the year porn went mobile, with Android
users in the United States being the highest viewers, followed by Canada
and the United Kingdom. Monday was found to be the most popular day
peopled viewed the x-rated movies.
While one in three women in
the US watch porn regularly, according to statistics, 70 per cent of men
aged between 18 and 24 visit porn sites at least once a month. But that
is not the crux of the matter; Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya have
been found to be the three most anti-gay countries that watch gay porn
the most, according to a study in 2013.
These countries were
found to have the highest Google search for “gay sex pics” and “anal sex
pics” with Kenya leading the chart. According to the ranking index,
Kenya, had 100, South Africa 72, Nigeria 56, Pakistan 46 and United
States 10, among others.
But, as fast as the love of pornography
is growing across the globe, cutting across age divide, a study by some
Germans has found that watching pornography could have a damaging effect
on the brain and that more of it could re-wire the brain and alter its
structure and functions. In fact, the study stressed that it could
shrink part of the brain and reduce the ability of watchers to be
sexually stimulated.
According to the study, published on
medicaldaily, having sex and watching pornography cause dopamine, the
neurotransmitter responsible for learning, reward, emotions and
pleasure, to be released in the brain.
The researchers noted that
the more porn a person watches, the more the dopamine that is released,
which makes the brain to be desensitised to its effects, which could
reduce their decision-making capabilities. Young people who watch porn
frequently were also found to have reduced likelihood or tendencies to
venture into risk-taking ventures.
The leader of the researchers,
Simone Kühn, noted that men who view too much porn may become lazier
than others and that their research provided strong evidence that
pornography might harm the brain in some ways and change its size.
About
64 healthy German men, aged between 21 and 45, participated in the
study. Kuhn and her colleagues asked the participants how frequent they
were watching pornography. Their brains were studied with the aid of
functional magnetic resonance imaging to see how the brain reacts to
pornography.
According to Kuhn, their findings showed that those
who watch pornography have smaller corpus striatum, a part of the basal
ganglia of the brain, comprising the caudate and lentiform nuclei, and
that the more pornography people watched, the lower the activity in the
reward centres in their brains.
She said, “We found that the
volume of the so-called striatum, a brain region that has been
associated with reward processing and motivated behaviour, was smaller
the more pornography consumption the participants reported.
“We
also found that gray matter volume in the right caudate of the striatum
was smaller among frequent porn viewers. Men who watched more porn also
showed less activity in another area of the striatum, known as the left
putamen, which lit up when exposed to sexual stimuli.
“These
brain changes are similar to those seen in cocaine addicts, who develop
abnormalities in areas, such as the nucleus accumbens and striatum,
which are responsible for learning, memory, pleasure and reward.
“Moreover,
we found that another brain region, which is also part of the striatum
that is active when people see sexual stimuli, shows less activation the
more pornography participants consumed.
“In essence, the
connectivity between the brain’s striatum and prefrontal cortex worsened
with increased consumption of pornography, suggesting poorer and
impaired decision-making capability. Thus, frequent pornographic
consumption would surely change how the brain works, and basically,
everything that people do very frequently can shape their brain
structure and function.”
The researchers further warned that
people who are used to watching porn tend to first think of porn instead
of the actual sexual experience anytime they have sexual desires, once
their brain associates the feelings given by oxytocin, vasopressin and
serotonin (often released during porn or sex) to pornography. The
researchers had yet to ascertain the level of impact watching porn has
on the brain.
A physiologist, Gary Wilson, said the addiction
from pornography creates a constant need to feel that strong stimulation
to watch it some more, thereby needing more dopamine, which could wear
out the brain.
He added, “Sometimes, the brain gets worn out and
halts the production of dopamine, which leaves the viewer in quest for
more satisfaction with the inability to reach it. This can provoke the
viewer to seek out more intense porn to get high. As a result, it can
give a person a reason to watch more porn, which is why addictions are
difficult to break.”
Commenting on the study, a neurologist, Dr.
Emmanuel Olusola, said there were convincing evidences to show that
pornography could have an effect on the brain.
He said,
“Prolonged and irresistible viewing of pornography definitely causes
changes in the chemical, synaptic function and anatomy of neurons in the
basic brain cells in certain parts of the brain, most especially the
frontal lobe function.
“Basically, this addiction causes down
function of brain cells like other forms of chemical addictions like
alcohol, amphetamine and cocaine.”
Also, a psychologist, Prof.
Oni Fagboungbe, agreed that watching pornography could affect the brain,
and that it could change the conditioning of the brain.
He said,
“It’s not the watching itself that would dull the brain, rather the
conditioning. When somebody watches pornography over time, the person
becomes engrossed and the reticular activating system in the brain would
be conditioned to watch more of it at the expense of other things,
which could make such people perform badly in other areas.”
He
added that pornography could also make the watchers lose interest in the
real sexual intercourse because they “tend to get satiated with
watching it.”
