Abstract
Background: Negative affective states may increase the risk for problematic pornography use. Underlying neurophysiological mechanisms are, however, not completely understood. Previous research suggests that the participants' emotional state may affect neural processing of sexual stimuli. The aim of this study was to investigate neural correlates of negative affect-induced alterations in sexual cue reactivity in healthy men. The moderating effects of habitual porn consumption, trait sexual motivation, and symptoms of cybersex addiction were also considered.Method: Sixty-four healthy men engaged in a sexual cue reactivity task (passive viewing of explicit sexual pictures and neutral pictures depicting scenes of social interaction) during negative (n = 32) vs. neutral affect (n = 32), induced via tailored feedback on a performance task. Self-reported sexual arousal and event-related brain potentials indicated cue reactivity and motivated attention. Symptoms of cybersex addiction and trait sexual motivation were assessed with the help of the short Internet Addiction Test, adapted to online sexual activities, and the Trait Sexual Motivation Questionnaire.Results: Negative feedback increased negative affect after the performance task. While sexual pictures compared to neutral pictures elicited significantly larger P300 and late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes, there was no general effect of negative feedback on sexual stimuli-related P300 and LPP amplitudes. In the negative feedback group, men with higher solitary sexual motivation levels showed higher P300/LPP difference amplitudes for sexual stimuli compared to men with lower levels of solitary sexual motivation. The opposite effect was found in the group with neutral feedback. There was no link to other aspects of trait sexual motivation and symptoms of cybersex addiction.Conclusions: Results suggest that higher levels of solitary sexual motivation may enhance motivated attention toward sexual stimuli among men receiving negative performance feedback. Other characteristics of sexual behaviors and traits provided no exploratory value. Future studies extending onto men suffering from compulsive sexual behavior disorder will have to closer look at the neurophysiological bases of why and when some men develop an addictive pornography consumption.
Highlights
Digitalization has an impact on a wide range of areas of life, including sexual behaviors
Despite this rather low subjectively rated cue reactivity, stronger positive ERP components emerged in response to pornographic pictures compared to neutral pictures. This was consistent with our hypotheses and with prior studies (Schupp et al, 2004, 2006; Hajcak et al, 2010). Both the Late Positive Potential (LPP) and the P300 are discussed as indicators of motivational attention, which in this study argues for higher attention toward pornographic pictures compared to neutral pictures
The results support a role for solitary sexual motivation in motivated attention toward pornographic pictures among men receiving negative performance feedback
Summary
Digitalization has an impact on a wide range of areas of life, including sexual behaviors. Men between the ages of 35–50 are the largest consumer group (BlaisLecours et al, 2016; Rissel et al, 2017), but regular usage is seen among other groups including women (Baranowski et al, 2019; Herbenick et al, 2020), younger adults and adolescents from various socio-economic backgrounds (Mattebo et al, 2013, 2016; Bothe et al, 2020b) This previous research is not free from methodological shortcomings such as small and biased samples or questionable validity of assessment measures. The increase of pornography consumption, among younger people (Price et al, 2016), goes along with rising numbers of individuals who report a problematic or an addictive use with psychopathological consequences (Duffy et al, 2016). The moderating effects of habitual porn consumption, trait sexual motivation, and symptoms of cybersex addiction were considered
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