Homosexual pedophilia and functional networks - An fMRI case report and literature review

Pedophilia is a complex bio-psycho-social disorder often associated with se rious offending. Knowledge about neurobiological correlates that could serv e as diagnostic and maybe even as prognostic markers is limited. FMRI exami nation, which shows neuronal activation in vivo and therefore represents a neurobiological correlate, was not done in pedophilia so far. We report on results of an fMRI examination in a homosexual pedophilic sex offender who differed significantly in neuronal activation during exposure to arousing v isual material (young boys in underwear) from normal controls. In self asse ssment on a visual analogous scale the pedophilic offender scored the pictu res of the boys as not being interesting and sexually not stimulating. Neve rtheless presentation of the pictures of the boys resulted in the pedophili c offender in a significant activation of the attention network and the rig ht Orbitofrontal cortex. In contrast to the controls there was no activatio n of left hemispheric areas relevant for speech. The study design will be c ontinued in a larger sample to examine whether there is a possible neurobio logical correlate of pedophilia which can be changed by therapeutic interve ntions.