Your brain on porn

[All Else Failed]

Novelty, novelty, more novelty
Dopamine surges for novelty. A new car, just-released movie, the latest gadget…we are all hooked on dopamine. As with everything new the thrill fades away as dopamine plummets.

Here’s how the Coolidge effect works: The rat’s reward circuitry is squirting less and less dopamine with respect to the current female, but produces a big dopamine surge for a new female. Does that sound familiar?

Internet porn is especially enticing to the reward circuitry because novelty is always just a click away. It could be a novel “mate,” unusual scene, strange sexual act, or—you fill in the blank. Someone can click for hours and experience more novel sex partners every ten minutes than our hunter-gatherer ancestors experienced in a lifetime.

What’s a brain to do when it has unlimited access to a superstimulating reward it never evolved to handle? The brain adapts, which can lead to addiction.

http://yourbrainonporn.com/

Has the easy and instantaneous access to porn made us into sultan-chimps on an e-harem?

 

[Maulds]

In my personal situation...no. I don't look at the stuff. But I agree with what your post says about how the effect becomes less and less from experiencing the same thing. I've been married a long time. :ninja

 

[Panacea]

Efukt is like a dopamine candy store, no?

 

[Peter Parka]

I think the stuff you can easily see on the internet can desensitise you to things and that's not just porn.

 

[All Else Failed]

I wonder how widespread the lower levels of dopamine are though across the board