- Titel
- Hypothalamic volume in pedophilia with or without child sexual offense
- Zitierfähige Url:
- https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-1049343
- Quellenangabe
- European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience
Erscheinungsjahr: 2023
Jahrgang: 273
Heft: 6
Seiten: 1295-1306
ISSN: 0940-1334
E-ISSN: 1433-8491 - Erstveröffentlichung
- 2023
- Abstract (EN)
- The hypothalamus regulates sexual behavior and is simultaneously associated with aggression and violence. Consequently, this brain region is relevant in research of pedophilia and child sexual offenses (CSO). The distinction between these two phenomena is of great importance and was the object of consideration of this study. We analyzed exclusively men, including 73 pedophilic offenders who committed CSO, an equal number of people with pedophilia but without such offenses, and 133 non-pedophilic, non-offending subjects who formed the control group. All data were collected in a multicenter in vivo study and analyzed using a semi-automated segmentation algorithm for 3-Tesla magnetic resonance images. Men with pedophilia who committed CSO on average had a 47 mm3 smaller hypothalamus per side than people without committed CSO. This effect was driven by both the group of non-offending people with pedophilia and the control group. By contrast, the explora- tory comparison of pedophilic persons without CSO with the control group showed no significant difference. The present study demonstrates a deviant hypothalamic structure as a neurobiological correlate of CSO in pedophiles, but not in people with pedophilia who have not committed CSO. Thus, it strengthens the argument to distinguish between sexual offending and paraphilic sexual preferences.
- Andere Ausgabe
- Erstveröffentlichung
DOI: 10.1007/s00406-022-01501-w - Freie Schlagwörter (EN)
- Pedophilia, Child sexual offending, Hypothalamus, Volume, Human, Magnetic resonance imaging
- Klassifikation (DDC)
- 610
- Verlag
- Springer, Berlin
- Version / Begutachtungsstatus
- publizierte Version / Verlagsversion
- URN Qucosa
- urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-1049343
- Veröffentlichungsdatum Qucosa
- 02.06.2026
- Dokumenttyp
- Artikel
- Sprache des Dokumentes
- Englisch
- Lizenz / Rechtehinweis
CC BY 4.0