Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory (CANLAB), Magdeburg, Germany; Leibniz Insitute for Neurobiology, Department for Behavioral Neurology, Magdeburg, Germany.
Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory (CANLAB), Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Neurology, Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
Neuroimage Clin. 2018 Jan 31;18:335-341. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2018.01.018. eCollection 2018.
A pedophilic disorder is characterised by abnormal sexual urges towards prepubescent children. Child abusive behavior is frequently a result of lack of behavioral inhibition and current treatment options entail, next to suppressing unchangeable sexual orientation, measures to increase cognitive and attentional control. We tested, if in brain regions subserving attentional control of behavior and perception of salient stimuli, such inhibition deficit can be observed also on the level of inhibitory neurotransmitters. We measured GABA concentration in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and in a control region, the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC) in pedophilic sex offenders ( = 13) and matched controls ( = 13) using a 7 Tesla STEAM magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). In dACC but not in the control region pedophilic sex offenders showed reduced GABA/Cr concentrations compared to healthy controls. The reduction was robust after controlling for potential influence of age and gray matter proportion within the MRS voxel ( < 0.04). Importantly, reduced GABA/Cr in patients was correlated with lower self-control measured with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (p = 0.028, r = -0.689). In a region related to cognitive control and salience mapping, pedophilic sex offenders showed reduction of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA which may be seen as a neuronal correlate of inhibition and behavioral control.
恋童癖障碍的特征是对青春期前儿童的异常性冲动。儿童虐待行为通常是缺乏行为抑制的结果，目前的治疗选择除了抑制不可改变的性取向外，还包括增加认知和注意力控制的措施。我们测试了在负责行为和显著刺激感知的注意力控制的大脑区域中，这种抑制缺陷是否也可以在抑制性神经递质水平上观察到。我们使用 7T STEAM 磁共振波谱（MRS）测量了恋童癖性犯罪者（= 13）和匹配对照组（= 13）的背侧前扣带皮层（dACC）和一个对照区域——前扣带皮层的膝前区（pgACC）中的 GABA 浓度。与健康对照组相比，恋童癖性犯罪者在 dACC 中而不是在对照区域中显示出 GABA/Cr 浓度降低。在控制 MRS 体素内的年龄和灰质比例的潜在影响后，这种降低是稳健的（<0.04）。重要的是，患者的 GABA/Cr 降低与巴瑞特冲动量表（Barratt Impulsiveness Scale）测量的自我控制能力较低相关（p=0.028，r=-0.689）。在与认知控制和突显映射相关的区域中，恋童癖性犯罪者表现出抑制性神经递质 GABA 的减少，这可能被视为抑制和行为控制的神经元相关物。
