Neurodevelopmental Correlates of Atypical Sexual Preferences.

Neurodevelopmental Correlates of Atypical Sexual Preferences, Michael Kuban, Ray Blanchard, James Cantor, Phil Klassen, Robert Dickey, and Bruce Christensen, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada

We outlined the research conducted at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health over the past decade, utilizing patient data from its Clinical Sexology Services. This research supports notions of early causative factors of later paraphilic behavior (and particularly, pedophilia). Examined during this study period were over 1,700 sexual offenders. Dependent variables involved were those relevant to pre- or peri-natal development. These consisted of neuropsych data, handedness measures, and self-reported early head traumas resulting in loss of consciousness. The independent variable employed was the specific target (age/gender) of each subject's sexual preferences, as assessed by phallometric measures (penile plethysmography). Men diagnosed as pedophilic (greatest attraction to prepubescent children), hebephilic (greatest attraction to pubescents), or teliophilic (preferring physically mature partners) were compared to each other on this battery of neuropsychologically-related variables. Results suggested that men afflicted with an anomalous erotic preference, namely, for the very immature physique, generally had substantially lower IQs than teliophiles, had a substantially greater incidence of left-handedness (almost 33% vs. a norm of 11-17%), and self-reported over twice the incidence of early head traumas resulting in loss of consciousness. This adds to the growing support for theories that sexual preference development occurs early in life, possibly in utero, and that early neurodevelopmental perturbations may likely contribute to developmental anomalies.