Abstract
Investigating the neural correlates of arousal in non-offending paedophiles provides an opportunity to focus on the dysfunctional process underlying paedophilic predilections. The study aimed to investigate the neural correlates of sexual arousal related to paedophilic preference. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and phallometric testing were used to determine sexual arousal related brain activity while listening to a series of auditory narratives including neutral, adult sexual, and child sexual content. Participants included 12 non-offending paedophiles and a control sample of 12 males with teleiophilic preferences. Blood oxygen level-dependent fMRI, phallometric response and subjective arousal ratings related to auditory stimuli. Subjective arousal ratings showed expected direction of preference for adult and child sexual content between control group and non-offending paedophiles respectively. Phallometric response during adult sexual content was higher in the control group although there was no difference between samples during the child sexual content. Imaging contrasts of the child relative to adult sexual content revealed functional activity in the cerebellum specific to non-offending paedophiles.
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