title: Pedophilic brain potential responses to adult erotic stimuli.
abstract: Cognitive mechanisms associated with the relative lack of sexual interest in adults by pedophiles are poorly understood and may benefit from investigations examining how the brain processes adult erotic stimuli. The current study used event-related brain potentials (ERP) to investigate the time course of the explicit processing of erotic, emotional, and neutral pictures in 22 pedophilic patients and 22 healthy controls. Consistent with previous studies, early latency anterior ERP components were highly selective for erotic pictures. Although the ERPs elicited by emotional stimuli were similar in patients and controls, an early frontal positive (P2) component starting as early as 185 ms was significantly attenuated and slow to onset in pedophilia, and correlated with a clinical measure of cognitive distortions. Failure of rapid attentional capture by erotic stimuli suggests a relative reduction in early processing in pedophilic patients which may be associated with relatively diminished sexual interest in adults.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Neuroelectrophysiology and Cognitive Research Laboratory, University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, ON, Canada; School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada. Electronic address: verner.knott@theroyal.ca.
authors.forename: Verner
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Knott
authors.affiliation: Clinical Neuroelectrophysiology and Cognitive Research Laboratory, University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, ON, Canada; School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Impey
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
authors.forename: Derek
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Delpero
authors.affiliation: Forensic Research Unit, University of Ottawa, Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fedoroff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D004882:Erotica / Q000523:psychology*; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010378:Pedophilia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Cognition; Erotic stimuli; Event-related potentials; Pedophiles