Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

What is the cause of the widespread sexual dysfunction found in late adolescence?

Addiction to pornography.

Why is it that your brain is susceptible to plastic changes when you watch porn?

Each time you see something exciting enough to make you orgasm, a reward neurotransmitter called dopamine is released which reinforces and consolidates the connection between the material and your brain. The reward facilitates the behavior.

Provide an example of a time when the ventral striatum fires?

Eating your favorite food; hearing your favorite song; addictions - cocaine or porn; financial gains; increasing social status.

Why is it that the pornographic material you seek becomes more extreme the more you watch something?

Plasticity is competitive. The content becomes more extreme because unknowingly we seek new, more exciting things.

________ is in danger of making us impersonal, of dampening our capacity and tendency for human connection.

Technology

Activity in the ventral striatum indicates what?

The degree to which a stimulus or behavior is rewarding.

What group of structures is responsible for our reward circuitry we have in the brain?

The ventral striatum.

What is neuroplasticity?

The way the brain changes correspondingly to your experiences.

When does addiction occur?

When the reward system/circuitry is overturned to prefer a type of reward that is detrimental to your wellbeing.