“Neuroscience of Internet Pornography Addiction: A Review and Update” – Excerpt critiquing Steele et al., 2013

Link to full paper – “Neuroscience of Internet Pornography Addiction: A Review and Update” (2015) Excerpt critiquing “Steele et al., 2013″: An EEG study on those complaining of problems regulating their viewing of internet pornography has reported the neural reactivity to sexual stimuli [303]. The study was designed to examine the relationship between ERP amplitudes […]

Critique of “Perceived Addiction to Internet Pornography and Psychological Distress: Examining Relationships Concurrently and Over Time” (2015)

Here are a few of the headlines birthed from this new study  by Joshua B. Grubbs, Nicholas Stauner, Julie J. Exline, Kenneth I. Pargament, and Matthew J. Lindberg (Grubbs et al.): Watching Porn Is OK. Believing In Porn Addiction Is Not Perceived Addiction To Porn Is More Harmful Than Porn Use Itself Believing You Have […]

Neuroscience-Based Studies on Porn Users & Sex Addicts (CSBD)

This page contains two lists (1) neuroscience-based commentaries & reviews of the literature, and, (2) neurological studies assessing the brain structure and functioning of Internet porn users and sex/porn addicts (Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder). To date, every neurological study offers support for the porn addiction model (no studies falsify the porn addiction model). The results […]

Analysis of “Modulation of late positive potentials by sexual images in problem users and controls inconsistent with ‘porn addiction’ (2015)”, by Liberos LLC/ SPAN lab

Introduction Because this EEG study reported greater porn use related to less brain activation to vanilla porn it is listed as supporting the hypothesis that chronic porn use down regulates sexual arousal. Put simply, the more frequent porn users were bored by static images of ho-hum porn (its findings parallel Kuhn & Gallinat., 2014). These […]

Nothing Adds Up in Dubious Study: Youthful Subjects’ ED Left Unexplained, by Gabe Deem

Published: 3/12/2015 (link to original article) UPDATE: June 11, 2015: A peer-reviewed critique by Richard A. Isenberg MD UPDATE: List of 0f over 100 studies linking porn use/porn addiction to sexual problems, low libido, less brain activation to sexual stimuli, and less sexual  & relationship satisfaction. UPDATE: August 5, 2016: Peer-reviewed paper by US Navy […]

The Bogus Sex Addiction “Controversy” and the Purveyors of Ignorance, by Linda Hatch, PhD

I still sometimes read a newspaper.  Today’s LA Times had the absolutely best article I have seen in years.  It is called “Sowing Doubt About Science” by Michael Hiltzik. Agnotology, the study of the production of ignorance The Hiltzik article reports on the work of Robert Proctor, a history of science professor at Stanford specializing […]

Critique of “The Emperor Has No Clothes: A Review of the ‘Pornography Addiction’ Model”, David Ley, Nicole Prause & Peter Finn (2014)

I provide 2 updated “Reality Checks” before we get to the 2014 critique. Reality check#1: Neurological & epidemiological studies that refute nearly every claim in Ley et al., 2014: See Questionable & Misleading Studies for highly publicized papers that are not what they claim to be.): Porn/sex addiction? This page lists over 55 neuroscience-based studies […]

‘High desire’, or ‘merely’ an addiction? A response to Steele et al. by Donald L. Hilton, Jr., MD*

Donald L. Hilton, Jr., MD* Department of Neurosurgery, The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, USA Published: 21 February 2014. Link to original paper Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology 2014. © 2014 Donald L. Hilton. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to […]

Is there evidence supporting the existence of pornography addiction? (2013)

Yes, according to Donald L Hilton, MD, author of “Pornography addiction – a supranormal stimulus considered in the context of neuroplasticity” in Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology. But one needs the perspective and education to understand the supporting evidence—and why it will eventually overtake the competing viewpoint that compulsive porn use is due to “hypersexual disorder,” […]

"Don’t Call it Hypersexuality: Why we Need the Term Sex Addiction," By Linda Hatch, PhD

What does it mean to say that sex addiction “exists” or “doesn’t exist” apart from the fact that denying its existence or rebutting the denials can get you your 15 minutes of fame. A diagnostic term is always a provisional construct, a tool for organizing information about phenomena we are trying to understand and work […]