Hehehe....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.”
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