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Scientifically, why people like to watch porn??


albertlee

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An interesting question indeed. Probably has something to do with voyeurism (if we're talking about actually watching two, or more people having sex). I think we're gonna need an expert to clarify this more, though.

 

Now where's Sayonara³ when you need him? :rolleyes:

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"Scientifically, why people like to watch porn??"

 

Btw, that should probably be why SOME people like to watch porn. As there are some who don't. Some find porn to be a turn on, some don't.

 

"Why am I a porn expert all of a sudden?"

 

No particular reason. Except for your five-year studies and a Ph. D. in pornology at Cambridge! We're on to you!

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I watched a prog about this years back, when you watch images etc it just like cognitive, in that I mean you see something and you brain starts to do a re-action to this, just like smelling salt and vinegar crisps your mouth starts to water.

 

Your brain starts working again in parts that don’t normally do much, I don’t know what this is good but ill let you think about that.

 

Hope this made sense

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"was "brain" a typo?"

 

You jolly little bugger, you fried my Brittish humor detector. :(

 

"just like smelling salt and vinegar crisps your mouth starts to water."

 

Hey, it's Pavlov's dogs all over again; this time with humans and pr0n. :o

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was "brain" a typo?

 

Sorry yeah i missed a word out, "big brain" not "little brain". :P

 

Yeah its pavlov's dog alright, they scanned peoples brains while showing them pictures, they also tested druger users while showing them pictures of drugs (I know i was strange), part of the brain that work during drug use (or not as the case maybe, lol) started lighting up when they looked at them.

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When you look at porn, you are exposed to images that evoke a very basic response (one of the three Fs - Fighting, Feeding and Reproduction) mediated by the hypothalamus. In the case of the sex drive, this also has a strong input from the dopaminergic reward system (one of the systems reponsible for addiction).

 

So, more or less in order of events: 1) Information from a sexually valenced image undergoes primary processing in the thalamus. The reticular activating system (via recursive feedback loops from the thalamus and limbic areas) causes elevated levels of arousal (not sexual, just conscious awareness), and causes you to orient to the stimulus. 2) The image undergoes further processing in the limbic system engaging a positive affective-motivational state (you become motivated to approach the stimulus). 3) Processing in the hypothalamus engages appropriate systems and results in autonomic changes consonant with the evoked affective-motivational state. 4) Further limbic processing involving the hippocampus (linking the information to pre-learned memories) and the anterior cingulate gyrus (response selection) adds an overtly sexual context to the original basic state and further autonomic changes occur in preparation. This involves physical sexual arousal and activation of the reward system.

 

All this occurs automatically and without volition, which in itself is a strong argument for determinism.

 

This is an exremely over-simplified model, but then I do have to get to work at some point today.

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