Frightening ways that porn rewires the teenage brain

GARY WILSON is the author of your Brain on Porn:

REWARD SYSTEM

DURING adolescence, the brain is constantly changing and shaping to its environment — especially its sexual environment.

The moment a teen looks at porn, several areas of the brain light up. The back of the brain will process the visual aspects, the sides of the brain will process the sounds. But it’s the reward system — the central part of which is called the ventral striatum — which tells your body to release the craving neurochemical dopamine.

This reward system evolved foremost to drive us towards those things we need in life, such as food, water and sex. They are necessary to our survival as a species.

DESENSITISED BY OVERUSE

BUT this part of the brain can become sensitised and desensitised to porn with overuse.

It’s confusing, but sensitisation blasts your reward centre in anticipation of porn use (causing cravings for porn), while desensitisation occurs while actually using porn — causing the user to seek more novel or extreme material to achieve the same high, or arousal state.

Another example would be an alcoholic, whose sensitisation causes cravings for alcohol (before taking a drink), but drinkers need more alcohol to achieve the same high.

Adolescents are particularly vulnerable, because the teenage brain is still developing — porn effectively rewires the brain in terms of what stimulation it needs to feel aroused.

REAL LOVE CAN’T COMPARE

IF A teenage boy watches a lot of porn, he may well associate arousal and orgasm with images and sounds rather than the experience of being with a real person. It’s not just about what he’s watching either — other aspects of internet porn such as the clicking from video to video, the search-