Video Transcript: What Happens to the Brain on Porn? - The Reward Circuit

In this graphic, you can see a limbic system in dark color. And the cerebral cortex on the  outside, which is very large in humans and much smaller in monkeys and rats and other  animals. You can think of cerebral cortex as the rational, logical brain, sort of like Spock on  Star Trek. It's not emotional. It's the planning, thinking part of our brain, which comes up with  clever ideas. Now, the cerebral cortex understands the consequences of our actions. The  limbic system does not like car engines all have the same basic design, so do all limbic  systems, whether it belongs to a rat, cat, dog, or us. Now, whether its hunger, mothering,  mating, or sexual desire, or even addiction, the same brain chemicals and structures do the  same jobs in all mammals. You see, scientists aren't studying rat brains to try and figure out  how to help rats. No, they're studying them to help us with our addictions. And other reasons.  The study is useful to us because limbic systems are so similar in all mammals, it's important  to remember that the chemical balance of our limbic system shapes how we see the world  shapes our mood, if our limbic brain is out of balance, so is our decision making. At its most  basic, the limbic system is all about avoiding pain, and repeating pleasure. You see, survival  depends on the avoidance of pain, both physical and emotional, adds the repetition of  pleasure, hot stove, bad. Ice cream, good. Mummy, good, snake, bad. Porn good, you get the idea. Now, you're looking at the center of the brain, slice down in the middle. And you can see there's this pretty small area called reward circuit. Sometimes you'll also hear the term reward center. And you can see that it actually goes from the limbic system up to the rational brain.  This is so important, we're going to be spending most of our time talking about this circuit. You see, this is where you experience all desire and most pleasure such as sex and orgasm. It's  also where you decide what you don't like and what you do like. And that's why it's pretty  important. It's small, but in essence, it's running the show, you never make a decision without  consulting your reward circuit. If you're addicted to anything, here's where it happened. The  reward circuitry is activated whenever we engage in behaviors that further our survival or,  more importantly, the survival of our genes. The rule is this. To get motivated, you must be  rewarded. So this circuit gives you feelings of pleasure and also the motivation to seek out  pleasure. It drives you to eat, engage in sex, take risks and bond. It's where you fall in love  with your spouse, and with your children and your parents. It also gets activated when your  team wins or you feel like an alpha male, or you're bungee jumping. The more exciting the  experience, the stronger this reward circuitry is activated. But keep in mind that it's also  activated for simple pleasures like watching a beautiful sunset, a walk in the woods or even a  smile from a girlfriend. Chemicals turn on and off certain parts of the brain for the reward  circuitry. It's dopamine. It's the main chemical of a group called a neuro transmitters that turns the reward circuitry on the reward circuitry is the engine. It truly is. And dopamine is the gas. If you really like high calorie foods that may be because you actually get a bigger blast of  dopamine for it than you do for low calorie foods. You crave them more because they register  as more rewarding. That's why you choose chocolate cake over brussel sprouts. It has been  programmed Give me high calories. Think about sugar, as Sugar Buzz is dopamine acting on  the reward circuitry. It's not the sugar in your blood acting on the brain. Now, excluding drugs  like meth or cocaine. orgasm is the biggest blast of dopamine. Dopamine has lots of  nicknames the craving neurochemical, the I got to have it no matter what neurochemical. You  see, it's behind all motivation to do anything. You're not craving ice cream or sex with a porn  star. No, you're actually craving more stimulation of your reward circuitry. You don't want to  win the lotto. You want to activate your reward circuitry. The bigger the surge of dopamine in  response to something the more you want it. Here's a question. Why didn't those hedge fund  billionaires retire? They certainly don't need any more money. Yes, they want more dopamine  in the form of winning at the stock market game. Donate and help us make medical education universal free state of the art and available to every human being For more such videos, join 

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