Ponseti Jorge, Bruhn Daniel, Nolting Julia, Gerwinn Hannah, Pohl Alexander, Stirn Aglaja, Granert Oliver, Laufs Helmut, Deuschl Günther, Wolff Stephan, Jansen Olav, Siebner Hartwig, Briken Peer, Mohnke Sebastian, Amelung Till, Kneer Jonas, Schiffer Boris, Walter Henrik, Kruger Tillmann H C
Institute of Sexual Medicine and Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Kiel University, Medical School, Kiel, Germany.
Department of Neurology, Kiel University, Medical School, Kiel, Germany.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2018 Jan 23;11:645. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00645. eCollection 2017.
Previous research found increased brain responses of men with sexual interest in children (i.e., pedophiles) not only to pictures of naked children but also to pictures of child faces. This opens the possibly that pedophilia is linked (in addition to or instead of an aberrant sexual system) to an over-active nurturing system. To test this hypothesis we exposed pedophiles and healthy controls to pictures of infant and adult animals during functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. By using pictures of infant animals (instead of human infants), we aimed to elicit nurturing processing without triggering sexual processing. We hypothesized that elevated brain responses to nurturing stimuli will be found - in addition to other brain areas - in the anterior insula of pedophiles because this area was repeatedly found to be activated when adults see pictures of babies. Behavioral ratings confirmed that pictures of infant or adult animals were not perceived as sexually arousing neither by the pedophilic participants nor by the heathy controls. Statistical analysis was applied to the whole brain as well as to the anterior insula as region of interest. Only in pedophiles did infants relative to adult animals increase brain activity in the anterior insula, supplementary motor cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal areas. Within-group analysis revealed an increased brain response to infant animals in the left anterior insular cortex of the pedophilic participants. Currently, pedophilia is considered the consequence of disturbed sexual or executive brain processing, but details are far from known. The present findings raise the question whether there is also an over-responsive nurturing system in pedophilia.
先前的研究发现，对儿童有性兴趣的男性（即恋童癖者）大脑反应增强，不仅对裸体儿童图片有反应，对儿童面部图片也有反应。这引发了一种可能性，即恋童癖（除了异常的性系统之外或取而代之）与过度活跃的养育系统有关。为了验证这一假设，我们在对恋童癖者和健康对照者进行大脑功能磁共振成像时，让他们观看幼年和成年动物的图片。通过使用幼年动物图片（而非人类婴儿图片），我们旨在引发养育过程的处理，而不触发性方面的处理。我们假设，除了其他脑区外，在恋童癖者的前脑岛会发现对养育刺激的大脑反应增强，因为当成年人看到婴儿图片时，这个区域反复被激活。行为评分证实，幼年或成年动物图片既未被恋童癖参与者也未被健康对照者视为具有性唤起作用。统计分析应用于全脑以及作为感兴趣区域的前脑岛。只有在恋童癖者中，相对于成年动物，婴儿图片使前脑岛、辅助运动皮层和背外侧前额叶区域的大脑活动增加。组内分析显示，恋童癖参与者左侧前脑岛皮层对幼年动物的大脑反应增强。目前，恋童癖被认为是性或执行大脑处理紊乱的结果，但具体细节尚不清楚。目前的研究结果提出了一个问题，即恋童癖中是否也存在过度反应的养育系统。
