Pedophilic brain potential responses to adult erotic stimuli

Verner Knott; Danielle Impey; Derek Fisher; Emily Delpero; Paul Fedoroff

doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2015.12.004

Pedophilic brain potential responses to adult erotic stimuli

Brain Res. 2016 Feb 1:1632:127-40. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.12.004. Epub 2015 Dec 9.

Authors

Verner Knott¹, Danielle Impey², Derek Fisher³, Emily Delpero⁴, Paul Fedoroff⁵

Affiliations

¹ Clinical Neuroelectrophysiology and Cognitive Research Laboratory, University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, ON, Canada; School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada. Electronic address: verner.knott@theroyal.ca.
² Clinical Neuroelectrophysiology and Cognitive Research Laboratory, University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, ON, Canada; School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
³ Department of Psychology, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
⁵ Forensic Research Unit, University of Ottawa, Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, ON, Canada.

PMID: 26683083
DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.12.004

Abstract

Cognitive mechanisms associated with the relative lack of sexual interest in adults by pedophiles are poorly understood and may benefit from investigations examining how the brain processes adult erotic stimuli. The current study used event-related brain potentials (ERP) to investigate the time course of the explicit processing of erotic, emotional, and neutral pictures in 22 pedophilic patients and 22 healthy controls. Consistent with previous studies, early latency anterior ERP components were highly selective for erotic pictures. Although the ERPs elicited by emotional stimuli were similar in patients and controls, an early frontal positive (P2) component starting as early as 185 ms was significantly attenuated and slow to onset in pedophilia, and correlated with a clinical measure of cognitive distortions. Failure of rapid attentional capture by erotic stimuli suggests a relative reduction in early processing in pedophilic patients which may be associated with relatively diminished sexual interest in adults.

Keywords: Cognition; Erotic stimuli; Event-related potentials; Pedophiles.

MeSH terms

Adult
Brain / physiology
Erotica / psychology*
Evoked Potentials, Visual / physiology*
Frontal Lobe / physiology*
Humans
Male
Pedophilia / diagnosis*
Pedophilia / physiopathology
Pedophilia / psychology*
Photic Stimulation / methods*