Division of Forensic Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Preventive Medicine, LWL-University Hospital Bochum, Germany.
Department of Forensic Psychiatry, LVR-Clinics Essen, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2017 Sep 1;12(9):1490-1499. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsx077.
Pedophilia is a sexual preference that is often associated with child sex offending (CSO). Sexual urges towards prepubescent children and specifically acting upon those urges are universally regarded as immoral. However, up until now, it is completely unknown whether moral processing of sexual offenses is altered in pedophiles. A total of 31 pedophilic men and 19 healthy controls were assessed by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in combination with a moral judgment paradigm consisting of 36 scenarios describing different types of offenses.Scenarios depicting sexual offenses against children compared to those depicting adults were associated with higher pattern of activation in the left temporo-parietal-junction (TPJ) and left posterior insular cortex, the posterior cingulate gyrus as well as the precuneus in controls relative to pedophiles, and vice versa. Moreover, brain activation in these areas were positively associated with ratings of moral reprehensibility and negatively associated with decision durations, but only in controls. Brain activation, found in key areas related to the broad network of moral judgment, theory of mind and (socio-)moral disgust - point to different moral processing of sexual offenses in pedophilia in general. The lack of associations between brain activation and behavioral responses in pedophiles further suggest a biased response pattern or dissected implicit valuation processes.
恋童癖是一种性偏好，通常与儿童性犯罪（CSO）有关。对未成熟儿童的性冲动，特别是对这些冲动的行为，普遍被认为是不道德的。然而，到目前为止，恋童癖者的性犯罪道德处理是否发生改变完全未知。总共 31 名恋童癖男性和 19 名健康对照组被使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）结合道德判断范式评估，该范式由 36 个描述不同类型犯罪的场景组成。与描述成人犯罪的场景相比，描述针对儿童的性犯罪的场景与对照组而非恋童癖者的左颞顶联合区（TPJ）和左后岛叶皮层、后扣带回和楔前叶的更高模式激活相关，反之亦然。此外，这些区域的大脑激活与道德可谴责性的评分呈正相关，与决策持续时间呈负相关，但仅在对照组中如此。在与道德判断、心理理论和（社会）道德厌恶的广泛网络相关的关键区域中发现的大脑激活表明，一般来说，恋童癖者对性犯罪的道德处理不同。恋童癖者大脑激活与行为反应之间缺乏关联进一步表明存在偏向的反应模式或割裂的隐性估值过程。
