Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 25, 2025
Meta-analysis of Voxel-Based Neuroimaging Studies using Seed-based d Mapping with Permutation of Subject Images SDM-PSI
Published on: November 27, 2019
Widespread and interrelated gray matter reductions in child sexual offenders with and without pedophilia: Evidence
Mona S Klöckner1,2, Kirsten Jordan1, Kent A Kiehl3,4
1Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
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.
