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Widespread and interrelated gray matter reductions in child sexual offenders with and without pedophilia: Evidence from a multivariate structural MRI study
Author(s) -
Klöckner Mona S.,
Jordan Kirsten,
Kiehl Kent A.,
Nyalakanti Prashanth K.,
Harenski Carla L.,
Müller Jürgen L.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
psychiatry and clinical neurosciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1440-1819
pISSN - 1323-1316
DOI - 10.1111/pcn.13292
Subject(s) - pedophilia , psychology , sexual abuse , population , child sexual abuse , clinical psychology , multivariate statistics , developmental psychology , poison control , injury prevention , medicine , environmental health , statistics , mathematics
Aim To further investigate the neuroanatomical correlates of child sexual offending and disentangle them from the neural correlates of pedophilia, using a multivariate analytical approach in order to minimize loss of statistical power. Methods This study presents structural MRI data on gray matter in an incarcerated, male population of 22 pedophilic and 21 non‐pedophilic child sexual offenders, and 20 violent non‐sexual offender controls, based on a multivariate whole‐brain approach using source‐based morphometry. Results We identify a network of several neuroanatomical regions exhibiting interrelated reduced gray matter in both child sexual offender groups relative to controls, comprising extensive clusters in the bilateral cerebellum and frontal lobe, as well as smaller clusters in the bilateral parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes, the bilateral basal ganglia, the medial cingulate and the hippocampus. Conclusion Our results speak to the interpretation that there are inter‐ and possibly connectivity‐related brain structural abnormalities in child sexual offenders that are not (only) pertaining to pedophilia per se . Interpretations and limitations of the present data are discussed and recommendations for future works are given.