Similar Age Preference but Different Attentional Control in Mandatory Hospitalized Individuals who Have Committed Sexual Offenses Against Children and Non-hospitalized Individuals With Self-Reported Sexual Interest in Children.

Thirty-two forensic persons who have committed sexual offenses against children (FP-SOC), 26 non-forensic persons of whom most have committed sexual offenses against children (NFP-SOC), 14 forensic persons who have not committed sexual offenses against children but have committed other offenses (FP-NSOC), and 53 non-forensic persons who have not committed sexual offenses against children (NFP-NSOC) were instructed to solve a cognitive task, while sexual distractors were presented simultaneously. Behavioral performance and eye movements were measured. FP-SOC and NFP-SOC exhibit same age preference patterns for children and adults, but both groups differ significantly with respect to sexual attentional control.

Rare, but potentially risky, high individual increase of self-reported sexual arousal in men, who have committed sexual offenses against children, while being confronted with experimental sexual stimuli - a retrospective data analysis.

This data analysis was initiated to further understand the infrequent yet intense instances of sexual arousal and signs of decompensation that emerge after exposing men who have committed sexual offenses against children to experimental sexual stimuli. We analyzed retrospectively and exploratory data of a self-developed sexual arousal questionnaire ("Current-State-of-Emotions-Questionnaire", CSEQ) with the following objectives: (i) examine subjective sexual arousal changes elicited during confrontation with experimental sexual stimuli, (ii) analyze these sexual arousal changes at an individual level to detect large responses, and (iii) ask for associations between large responses in sexual arousal and individual characteristics of participants, e.g.

Widespread and interrelated gray matter reductions in child sexual offenders with and without pedophilia: Evidence from a multivariate structural MRI study.

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.

Prevention of Sexual Child Abuse: Preliminary Results From an Outpatient Therapy Program.

In Germany, access to outpatient treatment services devoted to the prevention of (further) sexual offenses against minors and child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) offenses is often limited. The therapy project "Prevention of Sexual Abuse" tries to fill this gap by providing treatment to patients with a self-reported sexual interest in children and adolescents, irrespective of whether or not they are pedophilic or prosecuted by the legal justice system. Within the project, a treatment manual was developed which specifically addresses dynamic risk-factors in child sexual abusers and CSEM offenders.

Are There Any Biomarkers for Pedophilia and Sexual Child Abuse? A Review.

The use of biomarkers in medicine is a common and valuable approach in several clinical fields. Understanding the relationship between measurable biological processes and clinical outcomes not only is indispensable in the face of understanding physiological processes in healthy as well as in diseased organisms but also for understanding and evaluating treatment effects. Therefore, also in the context of forensic psychiatry, biomarkers and their potentially beneficial effects are of growing interest.

Web-Based Health Services in Forensic Psychiatry: A Review of the Use of the Internet in the Treatment of Child Sexual Abusers and Child Sexual Exploitation Material Offenders.

In recent years, web-based health services for a variety of mental disorders have been developed and evaluated. Evidence suggests that guided internet-based therapy can be as effective as conventional face-to-face therapy. In forensic psychiatric practice, few web-based treatments have been implemented up to now.

Behavioral Monitoring of Sexual Offenders Against Children in Virtual Risk Situations: A Feasibility Study.

The decision about unsupervised privileges for sexual offenders against children (SOC) is one of the most difficult decisions for practitioners in forensic high-security hospitals. Facing the possible consequences of the decision for the society, a valid and reliable risk management of SOCs is essential. Some risk management approaches provide frameworks for the construction of relevant future risk situations.

Virtual reality applications for diagnosis, risk assessment and therapy of child abusers.

Despite the successful application of virtual reality (VR) in a wide variety of mental disorders and the obvious potentials that VR provides, the use of VR in the context of criminology and forensic psychology is sparse. For forensic mental health professionals, VR provides some advantages that outrun general advantages of VR, e.g.

Sexual interest and sexual self-control in men with self-reported sexual interest in children - A first eye tracking study.

Sexual child abuse is one of the most destructive events for child development. One possible approach to avert it is the preventive treatment of individuals with a sexual interest in children. The aim of the current eye tracking study was to compare people with a self-reported sexual interest in children who participate in the outpatient preventive treatment project "PsM", pedophilic forensic inpatients, and a non-pedophilic control group.

Sex attracts - neural correlates of sexual preference under cognitive demand.

Neurofunctional correlates of sexual arousal are of interest in basic research as well as in clinical science. In forensic psychiatry, it is important to use designs which are potentially robust against susceptibility to manipulation or deception. We tested a new design to measure neurofunctional correlates of sexual preference.

Neural correlates of subliminally presented visual sexual stimuli.

In the context of forensic psychiatry, it is crucial that diagnoses of deviant sexual interests are resistant to manipulation. In a first attempt to promote the development of such tools, the current fMRI study focusses on the examination of hemodynamic responses to preferred, in contrast to non-preferred, sexual stimuli with and without explicit sexual features in 24 healthy heterosexual subjects. The subliminal stimulus presentation of sexual stimuli could be a new approach to reduce vulnerability to manipulation.

Impaired Attentional Control in Pedophiles in a Sexual Distractor Task.

Pedophilic disorder, a subtype of paraphilia, is defined as a recurrent sexual interest in prepubescent children, which is characterized by persistent thoughts, fantasies, urges, sexual arousal, or behavior. Besides a deviant sexual preference, sexual preoccupation was found to be a dynamic risk factor for reoffending. Thus, it is conceivable that sex offenders and especially sex offenders against children have difficulties to control their responses to sexual stimuli.

Virtual Viewing Time: The Relationship between Presence and Sexual Interest in Androphilic and Gynephilic Men.

Virtual Reality (VR) has successfully been used in the research of human behavior for more than twenty years. The main advantage of VR is its capability to induce a high sense of presence. This results in emotions and behavior which are very close to those shown in real situations.

Changed processing of visual sexual stimuli under GnRH-therapy--a single case study in pedophilia using eye tracking and fMRI.

Background: Antiandrogen therapy (ADT) has been used for 30 years to treat pedophilic patients. The aim of the treatment is a reduction in sexual drive and, in consequence, a reduced risk of recidivism. Yet the therapeutic success of antiandrogens is uncertain especially regarding recidivism.

Sex hormones and mental rotation: an intensive longitudinal investigation.

The present study used an intensive longitudinal design to examine whether mental rotation performance varies according to a monthly cycle in both males and females and whether these variations are related to variations in progesterone, estradiol, and testosterone levels. We collected reaction time and accuracy data for 10 males and seven females each workday over eight weeks using 136 pairs of mental rotation stimuli/day, and measured sexual hormones concentrations in the saliva twice a week. A mixed linear model statistical analysis revealed that all females and seven males showed significant cycle effects in mental rotation performance.

Eye movements in pedophiles: automatic and controlled attentional processes while viewing prepubescent stimuli.

Recent theories in sexuality highlight the importance of automatic and controlled attentional processes in viewing sexually relevant stimuli. The model of Spiering and Everaerd (2007) assumes that sexually relevant features of a stimulus are preattentively selected and automatically induce focal attention to these sexually relevant aspects. Whether this assumption proves true for pedophiles is unknown.

Mirrored or identical--is the role of visual perception underestimated in the mental rotation process of 3D-objects?: a combined fMRI-eye tracking-study.

The mental-rotation task is a well known research paradigm to examine cognitive processes of mental imaging and mental manipulation (Shepard & Metzler, 1971). So far, research has been focused on stimulus orientation which indicates the necessary amount of mental rotation. But little attention has been paid to stimulus parity, specifically if and how identical and mirror-reversed stimuli are processed differently.

Diagnostic accuracy of eye movements in assessing pedophilia.

Introduction: Given that recurrent sexual interest in prepubescent children is one of the strongest single predictors for pedosexual offense recidivism, valid and reliable diagnosis of pedophilia is of particular importance. Nevertheless, current assessment methods still fail to fulfill psychometric quality criteria.

Aims: The aim of the study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of eye-movement parameters in regard to pedophilic sexual preferences.

The role of testosterone in sexuality and paraphilia--a neurobiological approach. Part I: testosterone and sexuality.

Introduction: Antiandrogen therapy has been used for 30 years to treat paraphilic patients and sexual offenders. Yet the therapeutic success of antiandrogens is uncertain. Furthermore, there is still a lack of comprehensive knowledge about the effects of androgen-lowering therapy in paraphilic patients.

The role of testosterone in sexuality and paraphilia--a neurobiological approach. Part II: testosterone and paraphilia.

Introduction: Antiandrogen therapy has been used for 30 years to treat paraphilic patients and sexual offenders. Yet the therapeutic success of antiandrogens is uncertain. Furthermore, there is still a lack of comprehensive knowledge about the effects of androgen-lowering therapy in paraphilic patients.

Initial orienting towards sexually relevant stimuli: preliminary evidence from eye movement measures.

It has been proposed that sexual stimuli will be processed in a comparable manner to other evolutionarily meaningful stimuli (such as spiders or snakes) and therefore elicit an attentional bias and more attentional engagement (Spiering and Everaerd, In E. Janssen (Ed.), The psychophysiology of sex (pp.

Interactive effects of sex hormones and gender stereotypes on cognitive sex differences--a psychobiosocial approach.

Biological and social factors have been shown to affect cognitive sex differences. For example, several studies have found that sex hormones have activating effects on sex-sensitive tasks. On the other hand, it has been shown that gender stereotypes can influence the cognitive performance of (gender-) stereotyped individuals.

The neural basis of the egocentric and allocentric spatial frame of reference.

The present study examines the functional and anatomical underpinnings of egocentric and allocentric coding of spatial coordinates. For this purpose, we set up a functional magnet resonance imaging experiment using verbal descriptions of spatial relations either with respect to the listener (egocentric) or without any body-centered relations (allocentric) to induce the two different spatial coding strategies. We aimed to identify and distinguish the neuroanatomical correlates of egocentric and allocentric spatial coding without any possible influences by visual stimulation.

Mental rotation test performance in four cross-cultural samples (n = 3367): overall sex differences and the role of academic program in performance.

Two meta-analyses (Linn and Petersen, 1985; Voyer et al., 1995) discuss variables that affect mental rotation performance but they do not mention a potentially important variable, the Academic Program in which students are enrolled. Sex differences in brain size have been related to sex differences in spatial performance (e.

Sex differences in left/right confusion.

In agreement with the literature, females (n=269) gave themselves significantly poorer ratings than males (n=164) in evaluating their ability to make fast and accurate left/right judgments. In order to evaluate the ecological validity of the self-ratings, subjects were tested on a task that required fast and accurate left/right judgments, on a mental rotation task, and on a task that required navigation of a virtual maze. The correlations between the performances and self-ratings were computed.