Pedophiles The brain responds to children's faces

Study: Brain pedophile responds strongly to children's faces

05/21/2014

Sex researchers have found in a study that the brain of pedophile men, unlike that of their healthy counterparts, responds to children's faces. It is currently being investigated whether a diagnosis of pedophilia is possible by means of this brain reaction.

Pedophiles are more responsive to children's faces
According to a study by the Kiel sexologist Jorge Ponseti, pedophile men respond more strongly to children's faces than their healthy counterparts. This is also evident in the brain activity. However, he was still investigating whether an objective diagnosis of pedophilia was possible by means of the brain reaction. Ponsetti and colleagues published their findings in the journal „Biology Letters“ the British Royal Society. „We looked at the brain activity of pedophile men and healthy controls as they looked at pictures of faces of differently aged people“, said Ponseti of the Institute for Sexual Medicine and Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, according to a message from the news agency dpa. The scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging for this purpose.

Facial brain areas show more activity
It turned out that pedophiles in facial brain areas showed more activity when looking at children's faces. As the psychologist Ponseti explained, activity in this brain region increases in healthy adults when they see faces of people who belong to their sexually preferred group. This has been known for some time. „When I see the image of a woman as a heterosexual man, my face-processing area becomes more active than when I see a man's face.“ However, researchers have now identified an analogous pattern among pedophiles. „Obviously, human brains have a mechanism by which they can estimate the age of a person's face and, accordingly, activate different behavioral programs.“ For pedophiles, brain activity was higher in the same areas as in healthy men, but under different circumstances.

Objective diagnosis of pedophilia
Currently, the Institute is investigating whether an objective diagnosis of pedophilia is possible by means of the brain reaction to children's faces. According to Ponseti, the practical benefit would lie above all in the planning of treatment, since not everyone who abuses a child is pedophile. Only about half of first-time offenders apply this diagnosis. The other part would be lost to children because they lacked contact with peers of the same sex. Therefore, the therapy with these men also looks different. It is often difficult to determine to which group a perpetrator belongs. „Here is often duped. There is an objective measurement helpful.“ The Kiel scientists had already measured the brain activities of pedophile and healthy men more than two years ago, showing them pictures of naked adults and children. As Ponseti explained, the auto-generated allocation accuracy of whether or not someone was pedophile is around 95 percent. Currently, these results would be tested under more difficult conditions. In addition, the data published now would also be reviewed for robustness.

Pedophilia is a mental disorder
In the „International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems“ (ICD-10) the World Health Organization (WHO) is pedophilia as „Disorder of sexual preference“ classified. Doctors speak of a mental disorder when the urge for a sexual relationship with children is permanent and the pedophile is at least 16 years old. Although there are no exact figures, estimates are that about 250,000 Germans have pedophilia. However, not every pedophile child abuses and not all sex offenders are pedophile. A pedophile propensity exists according to the current state of research for a lifetime and is not curable. However, there are prevention programs and behavioral therapies in which sufferers should, among other things, learn to recognize and avoid situations in which they could even be dangerous for children. In addition, the so-called „chemical castration“ applied, in which drugs suppress the sex drive. (Sb)