Ara-García Yaiza, Martí-Vilar Manuel, Badenes-Ribera Laura, González-Sala Francisco
Department of Basic Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy, Universitat de València, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
Department of Behavioral Science Methodology, Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy, Universitat de València, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
Brain Sci. 2025 Jan 2;15(1):38. doi: 10.3390/brainsci15010038.
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Studies on executive functions in child sex offenders relate their findings to the presence of pedophilia, but they are not able to distinguish between paraphilia and abuse. It is therefore this lack of a distinction that leads us to complement the existing information. Thus, the purpose of this review is to find all available evidence on the neurocognitive and neuroanatomical differences in executive functions among pedophilic and non-pedophilic child sex offenders, and non-offender pedophiles.
The present review, in accordance with the PRISMA statement, ran a systematic search of three databases (Web of Science, Scopus and ProQuest). This search identified 5697 potential articles, but only 16 studies met all the inclusion criteria. Most of the studies were conducted in Europe, using a cross-sectional design with a convenience sample.
The results showed alterations in frontal, temporal and parietal structures related to executive functions (e.g., response inhibition) in child sexual offenders, regardless of the presence of pedophilia.
In summary, there are differences in brain structure underlying executive functions related to child sexual abuse, but not to pedophilia as such.
背景/目的：关于儿童性犯罪者执行功能的研究将其结果与恋童癖的存在联系起来，但它们无法区分性偏好障碍和虐待行为。因此，正是这种缺乏区分导致我们补充现有信息。因此，本综述的目的是找出关于恋童癖和非恋童癖儿童性犯罪者以及非犯罪恋童癖者在执行功能方面神经认知和神经解剖学差异的所有现有证据。
本综述按照PRISMA声明，对三个数据库（科学网、Scopus和ProQuest）进行了系统检索。该检索识别出5697篇潜在文章，但只有16项研究符合所有纳入标准。大多数研究在欧洲进行，采用横断面设计和便利样本。
结果显示，无论是否存在恋童癖，儿童性犯罪者中与执行功能（如反应抑制）相关的额叶、颞叶和顶叶结构存在改变。
总之，与儿童性虐待相关的执行功能的脑结构存在差异，但与恋童癖本身无关。
