Neuroscientific Approaches to (Online) Pornography Addiction

Abstract

The availability of pornographic material has substantially increased with the development of the Internet. As a result of this, men ask for treatment more often because their pornography consumption intensity is out of control; i.e., they are not able to stop or reduce their problematic behavior although they are faced with negative consequences. There is a long lasting debate whether these kinds of problems should be conceptualized as a behavior addiction. In the last two decades, several studies with neuroscientific approaches, especially functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), were conducted to explore the neural correlates of watching pornography under experimental conditions and the neural correlates of excessive pornography use. Given previous results, excessive pornography con- sumption can be connected to already known neurobiological mechanisms under- lying the development of substance-related addictions. In the introduction, phenomenological, epidemiological, and diagnostic aspects of a syndrome, which is here labeled pornography addiction, will be described knowing that the adequacy of this terminology has to be further validated. In the second section, after aetiological considerations, contemporary neurobiological models will be presented to offer reference points for the question whether excessive pornography consumption can result in an addiction. In the third section of the chapter, neurobiological findings concerning three topics will be summarized: Neural correlates of watching pornography, cue reactivity and appetitive conditioning, and finally neurobiological characteristics of men with pornography addiction. The present contribution will be rounded off with a short conclusion highlighting possible future research questions.