title: Assessing paedophilia based on the haemodynamic brain response to face images.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Objective assessment of sexual preferences may be of relevance in the treatment and prognosis of child sexual offenders. Previous research has indicated that this can be achieved by pattern classification of brain responses to sexual child and adult images. Our recent research showed that human face processing is tuned to sexual age preferences. This observation prompted us to test whether paedophilia can be inferred based on the haemodynamic brain responses to adult and child faces.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-four men sexually attracted to prepubescent boys or girls (paedophiles) and 32 men sexually attracted to men or women (teleiophiles) were exposed to images of child and adult, male and female faces during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A cross-validated, automatic pattern classification algorithm of brain responses to facial stimuli yielded four misclassified participants (three false positives), corresponding to a specificity of 91% and a sensitivity of 95%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that the functional response to facial stimuli can be reliably used for fMRI-based classification of paedophilia, bypassing the problem of showing child sexual stimuli to paedophiles.
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Sexual Medicine and Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Kiel University, Medical School , Kiel , Germany.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ponseti
authors.affiliation: b Department of Neurology , Kiel University, Medical School , Kiel , Germany.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Granert
authors.affiliation: b Department of Neurology , Kiel University, Medical School , Kiel , Germany.
authors.forename: Thilo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Van Eimeren
authors.affiliation: c Department of Radiology and Neuroradiology , Kiel University, Medical School , Kiel , Germany.
authors.forename: Olav
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Jansen
authors.affiliation: c Department of Radiology and Neuroradiology , Kiel University, Medical School , Kiel , Germany.
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wolff
authors.affiliation: d Institute of Sexology and Sexual Medicine, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin , Berlin , Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Beier
authors.affiliation: b Department of Neurology , Kiel University, Medical School , Kiel , Germany.
authors.forename: Günther
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Deuschl
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Sexual Medicine and Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Kiel University, Medical School , Kiel , Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huchzermeier
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Sexual Medicine and Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Kiel University, Medical School , Kiel , Germany.
authors.forename: Aglaja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stirn
authors.affiliation: e Practice for Sexual Medicine , Kiel , Germany.
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bosinski
authors.affiliation: b Department of Neurology , Kiel University, Medical School , Kiel , Germany.|f Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre , Hvidovre , Denmark.|g Department of Neurology , Copenhagen University Hospital Bispebjerg , Bispebjerg , Denmark.
authors.forename: Hartwig
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Roman Siebner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000069336:Neurovascular Coupling; D010378:Pedophilia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: child sexual offending; fMRI; paedophilia; paraphilia; pattern classification