When watching porn, the size you’re worried about may not necessarily be what’s inside your head, but turns out watching too much of the stuff may be having a detrimental effect on what’s going on upstairs:

Men who report watching a lot of pornography tend to have less volume and activity in regions of the brain linked to rewards and motivation, says a new German study. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, can’t say watching porn caused the decrease in brain matter and activity, however. 

It’s not clear, for example, whether watching porn leads to brain changes or whether people born with certain brain types watch more porn, said Simone Kühn, the study’s lead author from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, in an email.

“Unfortunately we cannot answer this question based on the results of the present study,” Kühn said. But, she noted, the results provide the first evidence for a link between pornography consumption and reductions in brain size and brain activity in response to sexual stimuli.

(VIA Reuters)

You mean to tell me there’s a possibility that all those nights (and morning and evenings) wanking away to my heart’s content has been messing with my brain? You’re saying that hours upon hours of being sat in front of the computer struggling to keep my eyes open while some plumber/electrician/estate agent who’s terrible at his job gets laid is messing with my motivation and reward-seeking? What if porn IS my reward? Ever think of that, science?

To be fair it’s fairly obvious to assume that spending a lot of time watching porn is going to mess with motivation/reward seeking, but then your motivation/reward seeking are likely already not at the highest level if you’re spending that much time watching porn anyway. Kind of like a chicken and the egg situation. Doesn’t help matters that they can’t determine whether the porn itself makes any changes to the brain or whether you’re born with a porn-addicted brain, so basically these findings can be summed up as ‘the more porn you watch, the lazier you are/harder it is for you to get stimulated by porn’.

Whatever the case, I suppose it’s time we all make a conscious effort to quit, or at least cut down, on the porn.

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