People addicted to pornography display similar brain activity as those addicted to drugs or alcohol, an upcoming study from Cambridge University finds.

Researchers scanned the brains of 19 study participants who acknowledged an addiction to pornography, using functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the brain’s reaction to the material. Lead investigator Valerie Voon, an honorary consultant neuropsychiatrist at the university, told The Sunday Times the brain lit up — similar to the brains of alcoholics viewing an advertisement for Budweiser, Crown Royal, or similar invocations of the high life.

“We found greater activity in an area of the brain called the ventral striatum, which is a reward centre, involved in processing reward, motivation, and pleasure,” Voon said. “When an alcoholic sees an ad for a drink, their brain will light up in a certain way and they will be stimulated in a certain way. We are seeing this same kind of activity in users of pornography.”

Although investigators have yet to publish the small study, UK's Channel 4 will air a documentary called “Porn on the Brain” in September, featuring the new research. The findings support a public policy initiative from Prime Minister David Cameron to limit access to online pornography, with the idea that pornography may affect human health in ways similar to substance addiction.

As pornography remains firmly protected by the First Amendment in the United States, the issue remains contentious in the UK. On Sunday, the pornography industry began a three-day trade conference in London for online purveyors with speeches including “State of the Industry: The War on Porn.” Meanwhile, women’s rights activists in the country planned to protest outside the conference, accusing the industry of presenting a “toxic” effect on people — a contrast to the more tolerant style of many younger American feminists billing themselves as “sex-positive.”

Julia Long, from the London Feminist Network, lambasted the industry insiders in an interview with The Independent. “At the very moment we are having a national debate on the harms of pornography, and not least the enormous amount of porn in teenagers' and children's lives, [the trade group] is holding sessions specifically aimed at combating any attempts to curb access to internet pornography,” she said. “Pornographers don't care about the damage their industry does. Their only concern is profit.”

Among sessions on mobile pornography and “live/cam dating,” conference attendees planned to discuss Cameron’s conservative attack on the industry.

“Successive governments have mounted a sustained campaign against the UK porn industry and now's the time to fight back,” trade lawyer Myles Jackson said in a statement.