Women's brains react to porn the same as men's - study

A new study is challenging the widespread belief that men are more interested in porn than women, showing that women's brains react to pornography just as much as men's. 

The research, sexily entitled 'Neural substrates of sexual arousal are not sex-dependent', was published in medical journal PNAS on Monday. 

Researchers used data from almost 2000 participants over 61 brain scanning studies, showing them pornographic images while they lay in an MRI machine. 

The MRI scans reveal the brains of both sexes react in the same way to images and videos of naked people.

"There are differences in behaviour - the number of men going to porn sites is roughly 80 percent of the consumers," review co-author Hamid R Noori told New Scientist.

"But men and women respond the same way at the brain level to visual sexual stimuli. What we do with it afterwards is what brings the difference.

"By integrating all this data, we show that the human brain responds to visual sexual stimuli by activating the same areas in both sexes."

David Ley, a writer and sex therapist, told New Scientist women may watch less pornography because it is more stigmatized. 

He says the study shows "women can be just as visual, as men if they are allowed to be".  

While it's good news for women's sexuality, it's not good news for the environment. A new report by French think tank the Shift Project reveals that streaming online porn produces 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

Newshub.