Being choked during sex just a few times could lead to permanent brain damage, alarming study suggests

It’s the increasingly popular sex act that’s causing concern among doctors across the country.

According to a recent study, 58% of female college students have experienced choking, medically known as sexual strangulation, during intimate moments.

But now the strange “activation”, popularized by Gen Z TV shows like HBO’s Euphoria and the box office hit Fifty Shades of Grey, has been shown to cause alarming brain damage – which could be permanent.

Research showed that women who had been choked four times in the previous 30 days experienced changes in their brain structures that affected their ability to perform working memory tasks.

The research was led by sexual and reproductive health researcher Dr Debbie Herbinick, who is one of the scientists leading investigations into the harms of choking.

Other studies she has led have shown that choking and other forms of rough sex are not only common among young people, but also expected of them.

Restricted blood flow to the brain can prevent it from immediately functioning at its normal capacity and can experience necrosis, or tissue death, as early as five minutes due to a lack of oxygen and glucose supply.

The risks of the sexual act lie in depriving the brain of oxygen.

Even if it only lasts for short periods, such as 10 seconds, it can cause you to faint. Minutes without oxygen can lead to permanent brain damage.

Neurons, or brain cells, begin to shrivel and die. To survive, they draw on emergency fuel reserves, which generate lactic acid in the blood, ultimately leading to tissue damage in the heart, kidneys and liver after about 20 minutes.

The allure, advocates say, is the exhilaration felt by the sudden influx of oxygen that kicks in when the partner lets go.

Dr. Herbernick said: “There’s a lot of concern about adolescents and young people who are doing this, who don’t really have full knowledge and information about these behaviors yet, who maybe have a practice, very limited experience or background in communicating about sexuality.”

“Even historically, in the kinky and BDSM communities, strangling, which is actually what choking is, was banned for the most part and considered a really rare or niche sort of behavior that was of interest to a small sub -set of people and what they needed. very careful consent, communication, education.

Areas lit in red and orange represent the stifling group that had thicker brain areas in many regions, including parts of the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes, in both hemispheres involved in a long list of processes, including facial recognition, decision. manufacturing, self-awareness and motor movements

The choking group showed significant changes in fractal dimensionality (a measure of the complexity of brain structures, indicating how complex and detailed the surface of the cortex is) in various brain regions compared to the choking-naïve group. suffocation, with increases in certain areas and decreases. at the others

Areas in blue represent the smothering group which exhibited significantly less brain folding (gyrification) compared to the naive smothering group in several brain regions involved in decision-making, planning, emotional regulation, reward processing, language processing and speech.

A study published in the journal Brain Behavior looked at two groups of 41 women, one group who had been choking in the past 30 days and another who hadn’t, to see how the practice affected their brain structure .

The choking group had significantly increased cortical thickness in several brain regions involved in face recognition, visual processing and memory. compared to the choking-naïve group, suggesting that their brain structure had changed, perhaps permanently.

These structural changes could be associated with differences in cognitive functions or sensory processing.

Measures of the complexity of brain structures were mixed: the choking group showed increased volume in regions involved in processing touch, emotional processing, recognizing other faces and bodies, but decreased size areas involved in working memory, higher executive functions and self-awareness. and visual processing.

But the study authors cautioned: “It is possible that individuals predisposed to mental illnesses such as depression already have altered cortical morphology and are thus more prone to engage in risky behaviors.”

The practice of choking during sex is a relatively new phenomenon. Having moved beyond hiding in internet niches on porn sites – which have thrived – intimate smothering is now a staple of pop culture.

Beyond Euphoria, musicians like Jack Harlow and comedians like Ali Wong have shared their preference for this practice.

The first episode of the show Max Euphoria shows a character, Cassie, having sex with a partner who chokes her, assuming she would enjoy it. He didn’t ask her first.

Meanwhile, Jack Harlow sings in his song Lovin On Me: “I’m vanilla, baby, I’ll choke you, but I’m not a killer, baby.”

And comedian Ali Wong said: “I’m a bossy person, so be the boss, okay? Choke me enough so I can’t speak. Because if I can talk, I’ll tell you what to do.

A 2022 study reported that women who were choked at least once experienced loss of consciousness, indicating at least mild acquired brain damage, seizures, motor and speech disturbances, and paralysis.

Sam Pybus, 32, from the UK, killed his mistress Sophie Moss, 33 (pictured) by applying pressure to her neck during sex.

Sam Pybus, 32, and his now ex-wife Louise Howitt, were jailed for four years and eight months after admitting the manslaughter of Sophie Moss, a vulnerable mother-of-two who he strangled to death in bed .

Psychological outcomes included PTSD, depression, suicidal tendencies, and dissociation. Cognitive and behavioral symptoms were described less frequently, but included memory loss, increased aggression, compliance, and lack of help-seeking.

Dr. Herbernick said, “I think most parents are very shocked to hear about these changes in sexual behavior among adolescents and young adults, college students, etc. Because those weren’t the dominant behaviors, whereas people who are now in their 40s, 50s, and 60s were that age. This makes it very difficult for people to believe, or even accept, that this could be the case.

On February 7, Sam Pybus from the United Kingdom applied pressure to the neck of his girlfriend Sophie Moss while they had sex at her home. She had already asked him to do it, which made it technically consensual. Mr Pybus said he was drunk when he fatally strangled the mother-of-two.

The case is the latest in a string of examples in which a “sexual violence defense” has been used by men accused of killing women.

He claims that the strangled person “asked” his partner to perform the act that led to the homicide, adding that the homicide was the result of sexual practices to which the victim had consented and possibly demanded.

Mr Pybus was sentenced to just four years and eight months after pleading guilty to manslaughter, not murder, as there was no indication he intended to kill or cause her serious harm.