The Impact of Negative Mood on Event-Related Potentials When Viewing Pornographic Pictures

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.

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Electrophysiological evidence of enhanced early attentional bias toward sexual images in individuals with tendencies toward cybersex addiction

Journal of Behavioral Addictions ◽

10.1556/2006.2021.00082 ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Interference Effect ◽

Cue Reactivity ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Stroop Interference ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Attentional Processing ◽

Sexual Stimuli ◽

Related Potentials

Abstract Background and aims Attentional bias is a key factor in addictive behavior maintenance. However, whether attentional bias has a similar effect on cybersex addiction is unclear. We investigated differences in the attentional processing of sexually explicit images between individuals with high tendencies toward cybersex addiction (TCA) versus low tendencies using behavioral and electrophysiological indices. Methods Twenty-eight individuals with high TCA and 29 with low TCA performed an addiction Stroop task comprising sexual and neutral images in colored frames. Participants were asked to respond to the frame color and not the image contents, and behavioral and event-related potentials were recorded. Results Behaviorally, an addiction Stroop interference effect was found in the high TCA group, as shown by the longer reaction times to judge the frame colors of sexual images. Electrophysiologically, a P200 (150–220 ms) enhancement was present in response to sexual images compared with neutral ones, which was absent in the low TCA group. The event-related potential correlates with the addiction Stroop interference effect, indicating that the attentional bias underlying the addiction Stroop interference operates at an automatic level. A general, sexually related bias was found in the late positive potential (300–700 ms) amplitude, although between-group differences were insignificant. Discussion and conclusions These findings indicate that sexual stimuli grab the attentional resources of individuals with high TCA at early automatic stages of attentional processing. Increased cue reactivity to sexual stimuli may contribute to pornographic consumption and play a crucial role in sustaining problematic excessive use of online pornography.

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Cue Reactivity Essentials: Event-Related Potentials During Identification of Visual Alcoholic Stimuli in Social Drinkers

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs ◽

10.15288/jsad.2017.79.137 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 79 (1) ◽

pp. 137-147 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Agnes M. Kroczek ◽

Florian B. Haeussinger ◽

Justin Hudak ◽

Lucy D. Vanes ◽

Andreas J. Fallgatter ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cue Reactivity ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Social Drinkers ◽

Related Potentials

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Abnormal negative feedback processing in individuals with autistic traits in the Iowa gambling task: Evidence from behavior and event-related potentials

International Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2021.02.018 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Fangfang Chen ◽

Jianliang Gao ◽

Chunyan Zhu ◽

Lei Zhang ◽

Long Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Negative Feedback ◽

Iowa Gambling Task ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Autistic Traits ◽

Gambling Task ◽

Feedback Processing ◽

Related Potentials

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Smoking cue reactivity across massed extinction trials: Negative affect and gender effects

Addictive Behaviors ◽

10.1016/j.addbeh.2010.11.015 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 36 (4) ◽

pp. 308-314 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Bradley N. Collins ◽

Uma S. Nair ◽

Eugene Komaroff

Keyword(s):

Negative Affect ◽

Cue Reactivity ◽

Gender Effects ◽

Smoking Cue Reactivity ◽

And Gender

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Directed and Motivated Attention during Processing of Natural Scenes

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2008.20121 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 20 (10) ◽

pp. 1753-1761 ◽

Cited By ~ 121

Author(s):

Vera Ferrari ◽

Maurizio Codispoti ◽

Rossella Cardinale ◽

Margaret M. Bradley

Keyword(s):

Neural Circuits ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Natural Scenes ◽

Directed Attention ◽

Positive Potential ◽

New Information ◽

Motivated Attention ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Emotional Pictures ◽

The Relationship

Visual attention can be voluntarily oriented to detect target stimuli in order to facilitate goal-directed behaviors. Other visual stimuli capture attention because of motivational significance. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between directed and motivated attention using event-related potentials. Affectively engaging pictures were presented either as target stimuli or as nontargets in a categorization task. Results indicated that both task relevance and emotional significance modulated the late positive potential (LPP) over centro-parietal sensors. Effects of directed and motivated attention on the LPP were additive, with the largest centro-parietal positivity found for emotional pictures that were targets of directed attention, and the least for neutral pictures that were nontargets. Taken together, the data provide new information regarding the relationship between motivated and directed attention, and suggest that the LPP reflects the operation of attentional neural circuits that are utilized by both top-down and bottom-up processes.

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Age disrupts androgen receptor-modulated negative feedback in the gonadal axis in healthy men

AJP Endocrinology and Metabolism ◽

10.1152/ajpendo.00300.2010 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 299 (4) ◽

pp. E675-E682 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Johannes D. Veldhuis ◽

Paul Y. Takahashi ◽

Daniel M. Keenan ◽

Peter Y. Liu ◽

Kristi L. Mielke ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Androgen Receptor ◽

Negative Feedback ◽

Pulse Frequency ◽

Analysis Of Covariance ◽

Double Blind ◽

Healthy Men ◽

Age Related ◽

Lh Release ◽

Lh Secretion ◽

Double Blind Crossover Study

Testosterone (T) exerts negative feedback on the hypothalamo-pituitary (GnRH-LH) unit, but the relative roles of the CNS and pituitary are not established. We postulated that relatively greater LH responses to flutamide (brain-permeant antiandrogen) than bicalutamide (brain-impermeant antiandrogen) should reflect greater feedback via CNS than pituitary/peripheral androgen receptor-dependent pathways. To this end, 24 healthy men ages 20–73 yr, BMI 21–32 kg/m2, participated in a prospective, placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind crossover study of the effects of antiandrogen control of pulsatile, basal, and entropic (pattern regularity) measurements of LH secretion. Analysis of covariance revealed that flutamide but not bicalutamide 1) increased pulsatile LH secretion ( P = 0.003), 2) potentiated the age-related abbreviation of LH secretory bursts ( P = 0.025), 3) suppressed incremental GnRH-induced LH release ( P = 0.015), and 4) decreased the regularity of GnRH-stimulated LH release ( P = 0.012). Furthermore, the effect of flutamide exceeded that of bicalutamide in 1) raising mean LH ( P = 0.002) and T ( P = 0.017) concentrations, 2) accelerating LH pulse frequency ( P = 0.013), 3) amplifying total (basal plus pulsatile) LH ( P = 0.002) and T ( P < 0.001) secretion, 4) shortening LH secretory bursts ( P = 0.032), and 5) reducing LH secretory regularity ( P < 0.001). Both flutamide and bicalutamide elevated basal (nonpulsatile) LH secretion ( P < 0.001). These data suggest the hypothesis that topographically selective androgen receptor pathways mediate brain-predominant and pituitary-dependent feedback mechanisms in healthy men.

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