Scientists Can’t Agree on Whether Porn Use Affects our Brains (YNOT)

Read the full article by Miss Lagsalot at YNOT.com 

Scientists just can’t seem to agree on what porn does to people’s brains. You may recall that, a few weeks ago, neuroscientist Nicole Prause, PhD, informed the world that brain scientists have never found any true evidence that porn acts on human brains like a drug, despite the explosion of “porn addiction” treatment programs. Butt here we are again, this time with a different neuroscientist writing for The Conversation about research showing that the brain can treat porn like an addictive substance. And, more than that, Rachel Anne Barr from Canada’s Université Laval claimed, “porn appears to be hijacking our neural wiring with dire consequences.”

Passages like the following from her essay lead this reporter to believe that Barr may have a bit of an anti-porn bias going in: “Science is only just beginning to reveal the neurological repercussions of porn consumption. But it is already clear that the mental health and sex lives of its widespread audience are suffering catastrophic effects.”

She went on to cite various studies that backed up (some more so than others) claims that porn causes sexual dysfunction; hijacks brain plasticity; influences users to be more aggressive and perhaps violent (a theory which has been debunked time and again for decades by other scientists); and—the clincher—”Porn use has been correlated with erosion of the prefrontal cortex—the region of the brain that houses executive functions like morality, willpower and impulse control…which predisposes an individual to behave compulsively and make poor decisions.” Miss Lagsalot is an adult industry hanger-on who's been writing about her obsession with porn for over a decade.