Sexual desire, not hypersexuality, is related to neurophysiological responses elicited by sexual images

Abstract

BackgroundModulation of sexual desires is, in some cases, necessary to avoid inappropriate or illegal sexual behavior (downregulation of sexual desire) or to engage with a romantic partner (upregulation of sexual desire). Some have suggested that those who have difficulty downregulating their sexual desires be diagnosed as having a sexual ‘addiction’. This diagnosis is thought to be associated with sexual urges that feel out of control, high-frequency sexual behavior, consequences due to those behaviors, and poor ability to reduce those behaviors. However, such symptoms also may be better understood as a non-pathological variation of high sexual desire. Hypersexuals are thought to be relatively sexual reward sensitized, but also to have high exposure to visual sexual stimuli. Thus, the direction of neural responsivity to sexual stimuli expected was unclear. If these individuals exhibit habituation, their P300 amplitude to sexual stimuli should be diminished; if they merely have high sexual desire, their P300 amplitude to sexual stimuli should be increased. Neural responsivity to sexual stimuli in a sample of hypersexuals could differentiate these two competing explanations of symptoms.MethodsFifty-two (13 female) individuals who self-identified as having problems regulating their viewing of visual sexual stimuli viewed emotional (pleasant sexual, pleasant-non-sexual, neutral, and unpleasant) photographs while electroencephalography was collected.ResultsLarger P300 amplitude differences to pleasant sexual stimuli, relative to neutral stimuli, was negatively related to measures of sexual desire, but not related to measures of hypersexuality.ConclusionImplications for understanding hypersexuality as high desire, rather than disordered, are discussed.

Modulation of late positive potentials by sexual images in problem users and controls inconsistent with “porn addiction”

“…Contrary evidence suggests that hypersexuals may not exhibit more sexual desire. No relationship between neural (P300) responses to sexual images and three measures of hypersexuality could be identified in a study sufficiently powered to detect small effect sizes (Steele, Prause, Staley, & Fong, 2013). Another study of 120 men and women did not identify any differences in the level of sexual arousal reported to sexual films between those reporting problem use of VSS and controls .…”

“…Finally, those with more sexual intercourse partners exhibit greater LPP responses to sexually explicit images . However, the only study of neural sensitivity to sexual cues in those with problems regulating their viewing of VSS failed to find a relationship (Steele et al, 2013).…”

Shame and Sex Addiction: Through A Cinematic Lens

“…Further, it has been suggested that pornography has the potential to alter brain structures permanently, with the developing brain being the most vulnerable [57,58]. Because of current inconsistent neurobiological findings linking sexual images and behaviors with brain activity, more research in this area is needed [17,59].…”

Conscious and Non-Conscious Measures of Emotion: Do They Vary with Frequency of Pornography Use?

“…These later aspects of the ERP waveform have been attributed to cognitive processes such as attention and working memory (P300) [25] as well as sustained processing of emotionally-relevant stimuli (LPP) [26]. Steele et al [14] showed that the large P300 differences seen between viewing of sexually explicit images relative to neutral images was negatively related to measures of sexual desire, and had no effect on participants' hypersexuality. The authors suggested that this negative finding was most probably due to the images shown not having any novel significance to the participant pool, as participants all reported viewing high volumes of pornographic material, consequently leading to the suppression of the P300 component.…”

“…Studies utilizing ERP data tend to focus on later ERP effects such as the P300 [14] and Late-Positive Potential (LPP) [7,8] when investigating individuals who view pornography. These later aspects of the ERP waveform have been attributed to cognitive processes such as attention and working memory (P300) [25] as well as sustained processing of emotionally-relevant stimuli (LPP) [26].…”