MEG reveals preference specific increases of sexual-image-evoked responses in paedophilic sexual offenders and healthy controls

Abstract

Objectives

Paedophilic disorder is characterised by sexual attraction towards children. Classification of a counterpart as sexually attractive likely occurs rapidly, and involves both conscious and unconscious attentional and cognitive processes. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is an imaging method especially well-suited to examine visual and attentional processes triggered by sexual images within the range of milliseconds.

Methods

We investigated brain responses to sexual images depicting adults (frequent) and children (infrequent stimulus) in seventeen paedophilic patients with a history of child sexual offending (P + CSO) and twenty healthy controls (HC) during a passive visual oddball paradigm. Event-related fields (ERF) were measured to extract the magnetic visual mismatch negativity (vMMNm), and how it relates to the processing of different classes of sexual stimuli.

Results

P + CSO exhibited significantly longer vMMNm latencies (100–180 ms post-stimulus) than HC. Moreover, P + CSO showed widespread increased amplitudes in response to child images starting from P3a and P3b components and lasting up to 400 ms post-stimulus presentation localised in frontal and temporal brain regions.

Conclusions

This study uncovers the first MEG differences in automatic change detection between P + CSO and HC during the presentation of subliminal sexual images of adults and children, contributing towards a better understanding of the neurobiological processes of P + CSO.

Keywords:

• Attention
• brain imaging
• event-related brain potentials
• magnetoencephalography
• paedophilia

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Correction

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Laura Herrmann, Steffi Bachmann, Nina Noennig und Stefan Knape for their help and technical advice during data acquisition, and the staff from the Forensic Clinic Uchtspringe for their skilful assistance.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest. All authors have approved the final version of the article.

Data availability statement

The data supporting the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15622975.2020.1801969)

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by a grant from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research Germany (BMBF): 01KR1205 to BS, MW, KMB, HW, JP and THCK. IR was supported by a thesis scholarship from the University of Magdeburg, Medical Faculty.