Pedophilia and brain function

Pedophilia is defined as a sexual deviation in which an adult is sexually attracted to a prepubescent child. With relatively high prevalence rates and growing public concern over this issue, there has been a need to empirically investigate the neuropsychological basis of pedophilic behaviour. This literature review examines the resulting research, starting with research identifying the differences displayed in pedophilic individuals in IQ scores as compared to the general population. The developmental onset of pedophilia may also be linked to abnormal brain morphology: neurological structures in both the frontal/dysexecutive hypothesis and the temporal/limbic hypothesis have been proposed to be associated with pedophilia. Morphological differences between pedophilic individuals and non-pedophilic individuals have been further substantiated by the link between left-handedness and a diagnosis of pedophilia. Developmental reports of childhood head injury further support this claim, as pedophiles are more likely to have experienced head trauma at an early age. Finally, modern brain imaging studies have enabled researchers to discover that those individuals diagnosed with pedophilia display altered brain activity when presented with sexual stimuli in comparison with those not diagnosed. It must be emphasized that all of the findings may contain an innate bias due to the social denigration that is attached to research conducted on known pedophiles.