• Porn May 'Shut Down' Part of Your Brain
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[img]http://i.livescience.com/images/i/26438/original/woman-tv-120418.jpg?1334763270[/img] Watching explicit films has some surprising effects on brain activity. CREDIT: Petr Malyshev, Shutterstock [quote] Watching pornography would seem to be a vision-intensive task. But new research finds that looking at erotic movies can actually quiet the part of the brain that processes visual stimuli. Most of the time, watching movies or conducting any other visual task sends extra blood flow to this brain region. Not so when the movies are explicit, the researchers found. Instead, the brain seems to shunt blood — and therefore energy — elsewhere, perhaps to regions of the brain responsible for sexual arousal. Turns out, the brain may not need to take in all the visual details of a sex scene, said study researcher Gert Holstege, a uroneurologist at the University of Groningen Medical Center in the Netherlands. "If you look, for example, at your computer and you have to write something or whatever, then you have to look specifically and carefully at what you're doing because if you don't, it means you make mistakes," Holstege told LiveScience. "But the moment you are watching explicit sexual movies, that's not necessary, because you know exactly what's going on. It's not important that the door is green or yellow." Anxiety vs. arousal The brain can either be anxious or aroused (or neither), Holstege said, but not both. During orgasm, he has found, activity in brain regions associated with anxiety plummets. This phenomenon may explain why women with low levels of sexual desire often have high levels of anxiety, Holstege said. It makes sense; if you're looking around, focusing on visual details, scanning for danger, it may not be so easy to focus on arousal, he said. [The Sex Quiz: Myths, Taboos and Bizarre Facts] "If you yourself are in a very dangerous situation, whatever the reason, you don't have sexual feelings, because you have to survive for yourself, not survive for the species," Holstege said. Brain-scan research had previously turned up hints that explicit sexual images might quiet a brain area called Brodmann's area 17, also called the primary visual cortex, a region that does the first processing of incoming visual information in the brain. The data was spotty, however, and no one had looked into the question in women's brains. As part of a broader series of brain-scanning studies, Holstege examined the primary visual cortexes of 12 healthy heterosexual premenopausal women. All of the women were on hormonal birth control, smoothing out any menstrual-cycle related changes in sexual desire or arousal. Each woman watched three videos while having her brain imaged by positron emission tomography, better known as a PET scan. These scans detect minute changes in radioactivity in the brain that correspond to the amount of blood flowing to any given region. Regions with more blood flowing to them are considered more active. One of the videos used in the study was a simple nature documentary about marine life in the Caribbean. The other two were selections from "women-friendly" pornographic movies, one depicting only foreplay and manual stimulation and the other depicting oral sex and vaginal intercourse. Earlier studies had shown that the higher-intensity video showing intercourse produced stronger physical arousal in women than the foreplay-focused movie clip. [6 Great Things Sex Can Do For You] Safe sex The scan results revealed that the high-intensity erotic video — and only the high-intensity erotic video — resulted in far less blood being sent to the primary visual cortex. The region is still active, just much less so. Usually, that effect is only seen when people are asked to conduct a nonvisual task, like remembering words, while also watching some sort of visual stimuli. To Holstege, those results suggest that the brain is focusing on sexual arousal as more important than visual processing during these erotic films. "You have to realize that the brain wants to spare as much energy as possible, so if some part of the brain is not necessary at a high level of functioning, it immediately goes down," Holstege said. The findings have implications for sexual dysfunction, Holstege said, as they paint a picture of the brain in which safety is paramount and anxiety is a libido-killer. "If you want to have sex, as a man, you need to produce a safe situation for the woman," Holstege said. "That is what you want, that is the most important thing." Holstege reported his results online April 10 in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. You can follow LiveScience senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.[/quote] [url]http://www.livescience.com/19755-porn-shut-visual-brain.html[/url]
Going by their logic, the same thing goes for watching the same movie twice
so basically all this says is that when you're aroused, your brain shuts down the part that causes anxiety. So it really relieves stress.
[quote]Most of the time, watching movies or conducting any other visual task sends extra blood flow to this brain region. Not so when the movies are explicit, the researchers found. Instead, the brain seems to shunt blood — and therefore energy — elsewhere, perhaps to regions of the brain responsible for sexual arousal.[/quote] oh god "fapping makes you go blind" oh god no it's true everyone panic, NOW
And this is bad how, exactly? You pay less attention to minor details when you're watching porn. The horror.
[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;35649006]And this is bad how, exactly? You pay less attention to minor details when you're watching porn. The horror.[/QUOTE] I always try to find out the items in the room where people are having sex.
When I watch porn it shuts down the 'feel bad center' of my brain. [editline]value[/editline] That was a joke, so many people agreeing.
Virtually every study concerning porn and masturbation so far has been desperately trying to prove watching it/spanking your monkey was one of the worst things you could ever do to your body. Remember how it was common to say fapping made you deaf and how "scientists" tried to prove porn made your blind for a very short moment and it got worse every time you saw a picture ? Yeah.
Anyone that falls for this is an idiot, masturbating is pretty natural. Sure too much masturbation can literally hurt you, but that's your own fault for not knowing when enough is enough. In the end, this is extremely subjective and doesn't mean much
[quote]Instead, the brain seems to shunt blood — and therefore energy — elsewhere, perhaps to regions of the brain responsible for sexual arousal.[/quote] Shouldn't it be perfectly clear where all the blood is going?
[quote]Instead, the brain seems to shunt blood — and therefore energy — elsewhere, perhaps to regions of the brain responsible for sexual arousal.[/quote] ninj'd
Won't it affect your brain if you sustain an erection for too long anyway?
But, what if the porn is already "in your brain"? I make up my own porn...
I can confirm i lose my anxiety when looking at porn.
This article makes it sound like it's a bad thing but I remember a tangent from a tutor saying that you stop having emotions during sex more so for women. There's probably more to it than that though.
How does the article make it sound like a bad thing? Sounds pretty neutral to me. There is literally nothing negative in this research paper.
Well it is obvious. Would you lay a beautiful woman in the middle of a dangerous situation? (Perhaps but not what I'm getting to). It'd be the most uncomfortable situation ever when you're trying to get off
[IMG]http://i.livescience.com/images/i/26438/original/woman-tv-120418.jpg?1334763270[/IMG] Boring porn watching face.
[QUOTE=supertribute;35654523][IMG]http://i.livescience.com/images/i/26438/original/woman-tv-120418.jpg?1334763270[/IMG] Boring porn watching face.[/QUOTE] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcXC6rqvQFo[/media]
I'm fucked.
This research paper isn't trying to sensationalise anything or say its bad, its just some findings they produced which are pretty interesting but not morally leaning one way or another
Of course I don't give a shit if the door in the background is green or yellow while watching porn, my brain could even paint it in a rainbow pattern for all I care :v:
[QUOTE=Elgar;35649151]Shouldn't it be perfectly clear where all the blood is going?[/QUOTE] Avatar related.
[QUOTE=supertribute;35654523]-image- Boring porn watching face.[/QUOTE] Iunno, her face kinda has that "This shit is tame compared to what [b]I[/b] do" thing going on. Either that or the "I want to rape someone with a large object" thing. To be honest, I'm getting kinda scared. I think I need an adult.
First they say Masturbating to it help causes erectile dysfunction, now they're saying it shuts down parts of our brain? I swear, they're trying to get rid of porn once and for all.
[QUOTE=GeneralMastiff;35655348]First they say Masturbating to it help causes erectile dysfunction, now they're saying it shuts down parts of our brain? I swear, they're trying to get rid of porn once and for all :tinfoil:[/QUOTE] It's just a shitty thread title, calm down.
[QUOTE=Gmod4ever;35655279]Iunno, her face kinda has that "This shit is tame compared to what [b]I[/b] do" thing going on. Either that or the "I want to rape someone with a large object" thing. To be honest, I'm getting kinda scared. I think I need an adult.[/QUOTE] I am an adult. [IMG]http://facepunch.com/avatar/27396.png?garryis=awesome[/IMG]
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;35648993]oh god "fapping makes you go blind" oh god no it's true everyone panic, NOW[/QUOTE] OH GOD NOW I'M INCREDIBLY ANXIOUS [quote]During orgasm, he has found, activity in brain regions associated with anxiety plummets.[/quote] oh god oh god what do I do
[QUOTE=Elgar;35649151]Shouldn't it be perfectly clear where all the blood is going?[/QUOTE] avatar fits
[QUOTE=dass;35649265]But, what if the porn is already "in your brain"? I make up my own porn...[/QUOTE] I am my own porn [editline]21st April 2012[/editline] yup, 75% of all that amateur stuff online all me
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