Year-end Sale % OFF 
Abstract
Previous research found increased brain responses of men with sexual interest in children (i.e., pedophiles) not only to pictures of naked children but also to pictures of child faces. This opens the possibly that pedophilia is linked (in addition to or instead of an aberrant sexual system) to an over-active nurturing system. To test this hypothesis we exposed pedophiles and healthy controls to pictures of infant and adult animals during functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. By using pictures of infant animals (instead of human infants), we aimed to elicit nurturing processing without triggering sexual processing. We hypothesized that elevated brain responses to nurturing stimuli will be found – in addition to other brain areas – in the anterior insula of pedophiles because this area was repeatedly found to be activated when adults see pictures of babies. Behavioral ratings confirmed that pictures of infant or adult animals were not perceived as sexually arousing neither by the pedophilic participants nor by the heathy controls. Statistical analysis was applied to the whole brain as well as to the anterior insula as region of interest. Only in pedophiles did infants relative to adult animals increase brain activity in the anterior insula, supplementary motor cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal areas. Within-group analysis revealed an increased brain response to infant animals in the left anterior insular cortex of the pedophilic participants. Currently, pedophilia is considered the consequence of disturbed sexual or executive brain processing, but details are far from known. The present findings raise the question whether there is also an over-responsive nurturing system in pedophilia.
Highlights
Some men experience sexual attraction to prepubescent children or to children alt early stages of puberty
When masked by the pedophiles’ brain response to infant animals, we found an area of elevated brain activity covering the left anterior insula extending ventrally along the anterior peri-insular sulcus to the adjacent frontal operculum (Figure 3 and Table 2)
Increased activation was found in a network of brain regions that contribute to motivating behaviors such as nurturing, including the anterior insula (Leibenluft et al, 2004; Noriuchi et al, 2008; Lenzi et al, 2009; Strathearn et al, 2009; Caria et al, 2012; Wittfoth-Schardt et al, 2012; Abraham et al, 2014), mesial motor (Caria et al, 2012; Laurent and Ablow, 2013), and prefrontal cortex (Strathearn et al, 2009)
Summary
Some men experience sexual attraction to prepubescent children or to children alt early stages of puberty We found increased brain processing in pedophiles even in response to pictures of child faces relative to adult faces (Ponseti et al, 2014) This finding shows that the preference specific brain response of pedophiles does not depend on the presentation of infant genitals or an infant silhouette. This gives rise to the assumption that increased brain responses to infant stimuli in pedophilia are rather a consequence of an over-active nurturing system than of an over-active sexual system. Following this line of reasoning, we hypothesized that nurturing stimuli trigger increased brain responses in pedophiles even in the absence of any sexual meaning
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
