Mateusz Gola

University of California, San Diego / Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw · Institute for Neural Computations / Institute of Psychology

Pornography consumption is highly prevalent, particularly among young adult males. For some individuals, problematic pornography use (PPU) is a reason for seeking treatment. Despite the pervasiveness of pornography, PPU appears under-investigated, including with respect to the underlying neural mechanisms. Using functional magnetic resonance imagi...

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 add...

Background and aims Compulsive sexual behaviors (CSBs) are an important clinical and social issue. Despite the increasing number of studies, some of CSB’s aspects remain under-investigated. Here, we explore the nature of CSB, such as binge pornography use and masturbation (PuM), and verify the correspondence between self-perceived factors leading t...

Background How best to conceptualize problematic pornography use (PPU) and intervene most effectively remain debated, with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and addiction frameworks. We investigated the efficacy of the serotonin-reuptake inhibitor paroxetine in combination with cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of problematic pornogra...

Background Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder is currently included in the forthcoming eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11); however, prior studies have been conducted mostly on heterosexual, White/European male samples. Aim To examine the correlates of compulsive sexual behaviors (CSB) with sociodemographic...

Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) has become a significant issue in mental healthcare over the past decades as the number of people engaging in excessive and unhealthy gaming increases with each year. Despite its inclusion in the 5th Edition of Diagnostic Statistical Manual and the development of a number of treatment methods that have been designed a...

Despite the considerable amount of attention presently devoted to the high accessibility of online pornography, very little formal analyses have been carried out to show how the advent and proliferation of Internet technology has changed the prevalence of pornography use in populations. We conducted a preliminary analysis based on objective website...

5.1. Charakterystyka zjawiska chemsexu i jego rozpowszechnienie 5.2. Związek chemsexu z geolokalizacyjnymi aplikacjami randkowymi 5.3. Cecha poszukiwania doznań seksualnych a zaburzenie o charakterze kompulsywnych zachowań seksualnych i chemsex 5.4. Motywacja i powody angażowania się w chemsex 5.5. Psychospołeczne następstwa chemsexu 5.6. Stosowani...

Ta książka jest próbą dyskusji na temat wybranych aspektów problematyki zdrowia psychicznego w kontekście obserwowanych zmian zachodzących we współczesnym świecie. Autorzy wskazali, w jaki sposób takie procesy jak rozluźnienie więzi społecznych, wzrost poczucia osamotnienia, stopniowe zwiększanie się wpływu technologii na nasze codzienne funkcjonow...

Background and aims Despite the inclusion of the Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD) in the International Classification of Diseases, very little is known about the underlying affective and cognitive processes. To fill this gap, we compared CSBD subjects and Healthy-Controls (HC) across negative/positive valence, cognitive and sensorimotor s...

Background and aims Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD) is characterized by increased reactivity to erotic reward cues. Cue-encoded reward parameters, such as type (e.g. erotic or monetary) or probability of anticipated reward, shape reward-related motivational processes, increase the attractiveness of cues and therefore might enhance malada...

Background and Aims Moral incongruence involves disapproval of a behaviour in which people engage despite their moral beliefs. Although considerable research has been conducted on how moral incongruence relates to pornography use, potential roles for moral incongruence in other putative behavioural addictions have not been investigated. The aim of...

Supporting information on methodology and supplementary tables.

Background and aims: Even though the Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD) was added to the ICD-11 under the impulse control category in 2019, its neural mechanisms are still debated. Researchers have noted its similarity both to addiction and to Obssesive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The aim of our study was to address this question by investi...

Introduction Most of the previous studies on problematic pornography use and related behavior have focused on such descriptors of pornography use habits as frequency or time devoted to pornography use. Aim We argue that this constitutes a narrow view and indicators that characterize other aspects of explicit content consumption, namely (i) longest...

The aim of this chapter is to describe a wider perspective of the so-called hypersexuality including compulsive sexual behavior disorder as defined in the ICD-11 with its common features and therapeutic interventions but also other etiologies and clinical manifestations of “out-of-control sexual behaviors” that physicians and psychologists may be c...

Compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) is currently defined in the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an impulse control disorder. Criteria for hypersexual disorder (HD) had been proposed in 2010 for the fifth revision of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5). In this article, we compare difference...

Background and aims Compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD) is a medical condition that can impair social and occupational functioning and lead to severe distress. To date, treatment effectiveness studies of CSBD are under-developed; typically, treatment for CSBD is based on guidelines for substance or other behavioural addictions. Mindfulness-...

In the last years, dating applications (DAs) have had a significant impact on the way in which people seek sexual and romantic relationships. Social groups, such as men having sex with men (MSM), who can experience discrimination and social isolation, find DAs especially engaging and helpful in finding sexual partners. Previous studies have provide...

Purpose of review: World Health Organization recently included compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) to the upcoming 11th edition of International Classification of Diseases (6C72). Despite the potential benefits of this decision (eg, the acceleration of research in the field will allow the development of effective treatments), previous resea...

Background and aims: To address current gaps around screening for problematic pornography use (PPU), we initially developed and tested a six-item Brief Pornography Screen (BPS) that asked about PPU in the past six months. Methods and participants: We recruited five independent samples from the U.S. and Poland to evaluate the psychometric propert...

Backgrounds The classification of addictions and impulse control disorders is changing as reflected in the 11th version of International Classification of Disorders (WHO, 2018). However, studies focusing on direct comparison of structural brain differences in behavioral and substance addictions are limited. Aim Here, we contrast gray matter volume...

The 1989 collapse of the socialist political system in Poland initiated an avalanche of modifications regarding healthcare policy resulting with new institutions and programs dedicated to monitoring and preventing addiction. In the current article, we look at the available data allowing to track changes in (1) the prevalence of exposure to addictiv...

Supplementary figures for the article.

Repeated engagement in addictive behaviors may lead to relatively automatic action tendencies whereby individuals approach rather than avoid addictive stimuli. This study assessed whether an approach bias for erotic stimuli exists among heterosexual college-aged females who report using pornography. We tested 121 female undergraduates using an appr...

Objectives. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has demonstrated to be successful in the reduction of relapse rates in patients with recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD). Little is known if MBCT is effective for treating individuals with current MDD episode and about underlying psychophysiological mechanisms of symptoms reduction. The a...

Background and aims: Compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD) is a medical condition that can impair social and occupational functioning and lead to severe distress. To date, treatment effectiveness studies of CSBD are under-developed; typically, treatment for CSBD is based on guidelines for substance or other behavioural addictions. Mindfulness...

BACKGROUNDS: The concepts of addictions and impulse control disorders are changing as reflected in the 11thversion of International Classification of Disorders (ICD-11, WHO, 2018). However, studies focusing on direct comparison of structural brain differences in behavioral and substance addictions are limited.AIM: Here we contrast gray matter volum...

Social interactions require quick perception, interpretation, and categorization of faces, with facial features offering cues to emotions, intentions, and traits. Importantly, reactions to faces depend not only on their features but also on their processing fluency, with disfluent faces suffering social devaluation. The current research used electr...

Despite controversies about the diagnosis, the World Health Organization recently elected to include compulsive sexual behavior disorder in the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases. Both recent and remote works have suggested that various cultural factors such as personal religiousness and morality can influence both the exp...

Introduction Dysregulation of emotion (DE) is commonly seen in individuals suffering from compulsive sexual behavior (CSB), as well as represents a crucial element of its common comorbidities like mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders. Aim To investigate the links between CSB and DE. Methods A review of pertinent literature on CSB and DE was...

Introduction To date, multiple models of problematic pornography use have been proposed, but attempts to validate them have been scarce. Aim In our study, we aimed to evaluate the Pornography Problems due to Moral Incongruence model proposing that self-appraisals of pornography addiction stem from (i) general dysregulation, (ii) habits of use, and...

Dane dotyczące konsumpcji pornografii przez dzieci w Polsce są szokujące. Szerokie badania na ten temat przeprowadził Instytut Profilaktyki Zintegrowanej. Były nimi objęte szkoły w jedenastu województwach w latach 2014–2017. Badania zostały przeprowadzone na ogromnej, ponad -jedenastotysięcznej próbie młodzieży z II i III klasy gimnazjum. Spośród d...

Recent applications of simultaneous scalp electroencephalography (EEG) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) suggest that adapting stimulation to underlying brain states may enhance neuroplastic effects of TMS. It is often assumed that longer-lasting effects of TMS on brain function may be mediated by phasic interactions between TMS pulses an...

Background and aims: Compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) has implications for clinical and non-clinical adult populations. Disposition to CSB has been shown to influence adolescence sexual behaviors, but the development of adolescents' disposition toward CSB has yet to be examined in the family context. In this study, we investigated whether parent-a...

Objectives. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has demonstrated to be successful in the reduction of relapse rates in patients with recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD). Little is known if MBCT is effective for treating individuals with current MDD episode and about underlying psychophysiological mechanisms of symptoms reduction. The a...

The 1989 collapse of the socialist political system in Poland initiated an avalanche of modifications regarding healthcare policy resulting with new institutions and programs dedicated to monitoring and preventing addiction. In the current article, we look at the available data allowing to track changes in (1) the prevalence of exposure to addictiv...

Background and aims: Addicted individuals often demonstrate relatively automatic action tendencies in response to addiction-related stimuli, whereby they approach rather than avoid addictive stimuli. This study assessed whether an approach bias for erotic stimuli exists among heterosexual college-aged males who report using pornography. Methods:...

Despite the considerable amount of attention presently devoted to the high accessibility of online pornography, very little formal analyses have been carried out to show how the advent and proliferation of Internet technology has changed the prevalence of pornography use in populations. We conducted an analysis based on objective website traffic da...

Introduction: Human sexuality is a multidimensional phenomenon related to several factors, such as self-esteem, awareness of sexual needs, and ability to communicate them to others. Aim: To examine the sexual characteristics of patients seeking treatment for compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD)-a clinical diagnosis recently included in the...

Objective: Electroencephalography (EEG) is widely used by clinicians, scientists, engineers and other professionals worldwide, with an increasing number of low-cost, commercially-oriented EEG systems that have become available in recent years. One such system is the Cognionics Quick-20 (Cognionics Inc., San Diego, USA), which uses dry electrodes a...

Introduction: Early life trauma is at the core of many psychopathologies, including compulsive sexual behavior (CSB). The intermediate processes linking early life trauma and CSB have been less well studied. Aims: To investigate whether impulsiveness, internalizing symptoms, sensation-seeking, and self-criticism mediate the links between early lif...

Introduction: Despite evidence to the contrary, a number of advocacy and self-help groups persist in claiming that internet pornography use is driving an epidemic of erectile dysfunction (ED). Aim: The present work sought to explore whether mere pornography use itself and self-reported problematic use of pornography are related to ED, both cross...

Purpose of Review The current review summarizes the latest findings concerning neurobiological mechanisms of compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) and provides recommendations for future research specific to the diagnostic classification of the condition. Recent Findings To date, most neuroimaging research on compulsive sexual behavior has pr...

Compulsive Sexual Behaviors (CSB) are a reason to seek treatment. Given this reality, the number of studies on CSB has increased substantially in the last decade and the World Health Organization (WHO) included CSB in its proposal for the upcoming ICD-11. Sixty percent of the neuroimaging studies on CSB published since 2014 aimed to examine similar...

Background and aims: This two-study research was designed to define and predict profiles of compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) among non-clinical population of adolescents, and aimed to fill gaps in the current research. Methods: In Study 1 (N = 1,182), we examined the profiles of CSB among adolescents using latent profile analysis. Results reveal...

The letter by Kraus et al. (2018) published recently in World Psychiatry presents diagnostic criteria for compulsive sexual behaviors (CSBs). Here, we discuss the potential impact of including CSB disorder in ICD-11 for four areas: educational efforts related to CSB (for both clinicians and patients), investigation of underlying mechanisms and subt...

Purpose of Review: Here we review potential therapeutic approaches for treating compulsive sexual behaviors (CSB; also known as hypersexual disorder).We present the therapeutic goals of several psychological and, pharmacological treatment approaches, and state of the research on their effectiveness. Recent Findings: To date, no systematic studies w...

Background and aims Sexuality is natural to human life and inseparable from it, yet some individuals develop compulsive sexual behavior (CSB). Many individuals with CSB seek treatment in free self-support groups based on the twelve-step program. This program was extensively studied in substance abuse disorders (e.g., Alcoholics Anonymous), but litt...

Research on individuals with schizophrenia (SCZ) shows a variety of emotional and cognitive deficits. We examined the hypothesis that ineffective emotional interference control may impact working memory (WM) performance by disrupting information encoding, maintenance, or retrieval in SCZ. Twenty-eight SCZ and 28 matched healthy controls (HC) perfor...

Background and aims: The current study evaluated the clinical characteristics of pornography users who screened positive on the Brief Pornography Screener (BPS), a 5-item questionnaire developed to detect compulsive use of pornography among non-clinical and clinical populations. Methods: Two-hundred-and-twenty-three US military veterans were admini...

Background and Aims: As criteria for Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD) have been proposed for the upcoming ICD-11, we examined the characteristics of individuals seeking treatment for CSB. Methods: Questionnaire data were collected from 847 individuals (811 male, 36 female) voluntarily seeking psychological and psychiatric treatment for C...

Abnormalities in reward processing are crucial symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) and schizophrenia (SCH). Recent neuroscientific findings regarding MDD have led to conclusions about two different symptoms related to reward processing: motivational and consummatory anhedonia, corresponding, respectively, to impaired motivation to obtain re...

Visual field impairment affects more than 100 million people globally. However, due to the lack of the access to appropriate ophthalmic healthcare in undeveloped regions as a result of associated costs and expertise this number may be an underestimate. Improved access to affordable diagnostic software designed for visual field examination could slo...

Stroke patient no. 2; MM700 and Specvis visual field graphical maps. Conventions are the same as in Fig 3. (TIF)

Window for creating new luminance scale. (TIF)

Window for adjusting Blindspot fixation monitor technique settings. (TIF)

Window for adjusting Fixation point change fixation monitor technique settings. (TIF)

Background and Aims: Previous studies examined psychological factors related to treatment-seeking for problematic pornography use (PU) among males. In this study, we focused on females who seek treatment for problematic PU and compared them with non-problematic pornography users with regards to variables related to problematic PU. Secondly, we inve...