Background
Although pedophilia is of high public concern, little is known about underlying neural
mechanisms. Although pedophilic patients are sexually attracted to prepubescent children,
they show no sexual interest toward adults. This study aimed to investigate the neural
correlates of deficits of sexual and emotional arousal in pedophiles.
Methods
Thirteen pedophilic patients and 14 healthy control subjects were tested for differential
neural activity during visual stimulation with emotional and erotic pictures with
functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Results
Regions showing differential activations during the erotic condition comprised the
hypothalamus, the periaqueductal gray, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the latter
correlating with a clinical measure. Alterations of emotional processing concerned
the amygdala–hippocampus and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.
Conclusions
Hypothesized regions relevant for processing of erotic stimuli in healthy individuals
showed reduced activations during visual erotic stimulation in pedophilic patients.
This suggests an impaired recruitment of key structures that might contribute to an
altered sexual interest of these patients toward adults.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 02, 2007
Accepted:
October 10,
2006
Received in revised form:
October 4,
2006
Received:
July 29,
2006
Identification
Copyright
© 2007 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
