Gola Mateusz, Wordecha Małgorzata, Marchewka Artur, Sescousse Guillaume
Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, Institute for Neural Computations, University of California San DiegoSan Diego, CA, USA; Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of SciencesWarsaw, Poland.
Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of SciencesWarsaw, Poland; Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Neurobiology Center, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of Polish Academy of SciencesWarsaw, Poland.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2016 Aug 15;10:402. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2016.00402. eCollection 2016.
There is an increasing number of neuroimaging studies using visual sexual stimuli (VSS), especially within the emerging field of research on compulsive sexual behaviors (CSB). A central question in this field is whether behaviors such as excessive pornography consumption share common brain mechanisms with widely studied substance and behavioral addictions. Depending on how VSS are conceptualized, different predictions can be formulated within the frameworks of Reinforcement Learning or Incentive Salience Theory, where a crucial distinction is made between conditioned and unconditioned stimuli (related to reward anticipation vs. reward consumption, respectively). Surveying 40 recent human neuroimaging studies we show existing ambiguity about the conceptualization of VSS. Therefore, we feel that it is important to address the question of whether VSS should be considered as conditioned stimuli (cue) or unconditioned stimuli (reward). Here we present our own perspective, which is that in most laboratory settings VSS play a role of reward, as evidenced by: (1) experience of pleasure while watching VSS, possibly accompanied by genital reaction; (2) reward-related brain activity correlated with these pleasurable feelings in response to VSS; (3) a willingness to exert effort to view VSS similarly as for other rewarding stimuli such as money; and (4) conditioning for cues predictive of VSS. We hope that this perspective article will initiate a scientific discussion on this important and overlooked topic and increase attention for appropriate interpretations of results of human neuroimaging studies using VSS.
越来越多的神经影像学研究使用视觉性刺激(VSS),尤其是在强迫性行为(CSB)这一新兴研究领域内。该领域的一个核心问题是,诸如过度消费色情内容等行为是否与经过广泛研究的物质成瘾和行为成瘾具有共同的脑机制。根据对VSS的概念化方式,可在强化学习或动机显著性理论的框架内做出不同预测,其中在条件刺激和无条件刺激之间存在关键区别(分别与奖励预期和奖励消费相关)。通过调查40项近期的人类神经影像学研究,我们发现对于VSS的概念化存在现有歧义。因此,我们认为解决VSS应被视为条件刺激(线索)还是无条件刺激(奖励)这一问题很重要。在此我们提出自己的观点,即在大多数实验室环境中,VSS发挥着奖励的作用,证据如下:(1)观看VSS时的愉悦体验,可能伴有生殖器反应;(2)与这些愉悦感受相关的奖励性脑活动,是对VSS的反应;(3)像对待金钱等其他奖励性刺激一样,愿意付出努力去观看VSS;(4)对预测VSS的线索进行条件作用。我们希望这篇观点文章能引发关于这个重要且被忽视的话题的科学讨论,并提高对使用VSS的人类神经影像学研究结果进行恰当解释的关注度。