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Open Access 01-02-2022 | Pedophilia | Original Contribution

Sexual preference for prepubescent children is associated with enhanced processing of child faces in juveniles

Authors: Lara Speer, Miriam Schuler, Julian Keil, James K. Moran, Pierre Pantazidis, Till Amelung, Jakob Florack, Klaus M. Beier, Daniel Senkowski

Published in: European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Issue 2/2022

Abstract

Child sexual abuse offences (CSOs) represent a severe ethical and socioeconomic burden for society. Juveniles with a sexual preference for prepubescent children (PP) commit a large percentage of CSOs, but have been widely neglected in neuroscience research. Aberrant neural responses to face stimuli have been observed in men with pedophilic interest. Thus far, it is unknown whether such aberrations exist already in PP. A passive face-viewing paradigm, including the presentation of child and adult faces, was deployed and high-density electroencephalography data were recorded. The study group comprised 25 PP and the control group involved 22 juveniles with age-adequate sexual preference. Attractiveness ratings and evoked brain responses were obtained for the face stimuli. An aberrant pattern of attractiveness ratings for child vs. adult faces was found in the PP group. Moreover, elevated occipital P1 amplitudes were observed for adult vs. child faces in both groups. At longer latency (340–426 ms), a stronger negative deflection to child vs. adult faces, which was source localized in higher visual, parietal and frontal regions, was specifically observed in the PP group. Our study provides evidence for enhanced neural processing of child face stimuli in PP, which might reflect elevated attention capture of face stimuli depicting members from the sexually preferred age group. This study expands our understanding of the neural foundations underlying sexual interest in prepubescent children and provides a promising path for the uncovering of objective biomarkers of sexual responsiveness to childlike body schemes in juveniles.

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Title: Sexual preference for prepubescent children is associated with enhanced processing of child faces in juveniles
Authors: Lara Speer
Miriam Schuler
Julian Keil
James K. Moran
Pierre Pantazidis
Till Amelung
Jakob Florack
Klaus M. Beier
Daniel Senkowski
Publication date: 01-02-2022
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Keywords: Pedophilia
Electroencephalography
Pedophilia
Published in: European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry / Issue 2/2022
Print ISSN: 1018-8827
Electronic ISSN: 1435-165X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01684-4

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Sexual preference for prepubescent children is associated with enhanced processing of child faces in juveniles

Abstract

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