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

Item Type:	Article
Title:	MEG reveals preference specific increases of sexual-image-evoked responses in paedophilic sexual offenders and healthy controls
Creators Name:	Krylova, M. and Ristow, I. and Marr, V. and Borchardt, V. and Li, M. and Witzel, J. and Drumkova, K. and Harris, J.A. and Zacharias, N. and Schiltz, K. and Amelung, T. and Beier, K.M. and Kruger, T.H.C. and Ponseti, J. and Schiffer, B. and Walter, H. and Kärgel, C. and Walter, M.
Abstract:	OBJECTIVES: Paedophilic disorder is characterized 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 (100-180ms 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 400ms post-stimulus presentation localized 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
Source:	World Journal of Biological Psychiatry
ISSN:	1562-2975
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Volume:	22
Number:	4
Page Range:	257-270
Date:	April 2021
Official Publication:	https://doi.org/10.1080/15622975.2020.1789216
PubMed:	View item in PubMed

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