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Sexual interest in children has been associated with adverse life experiences, such as childhood trauma and abuse. However, neuropsychological findings suggest altered brain function in pedophilia. These researchers compared sexual response and brain structure between 65 male sexual offenders with pedophilia (cases) and 62 men convicted of nonsexual offenses (controls); methods included MRI and phallometry response. Pedophilia was verified through criminal records, self-acknowledgment, or phallometry.
Forty-four cases and 53 controls met criteria for the MRI study. Compared with the controls, the cases had lower white-matter volumes in the temporal and parietal lobes in two major fiber bundles: the superior fronto-occipital fasciculus and th…