Quantitative EEG studies of pedophilia

Ninety six pedophiles, whose sexual orientation was confirmed by phallometric response to sexual stimuli, were investigated with quantitative EEG and compared to age- and sex-matched healthy controls. The EEG analysis showed a pattern of increased frontal delta, theta and alpha power (especially during verbal processing) and a pattern of reduced interhemispheric and increased intrahemispheric-interhemispheric coherence, right and left (only during verbal processing), an effect that was restricted to those who showed maximal erotic arousal for sexual partners aged 6–12 years. These findings will be discussed in the context of recent studies which suggest that sexual deviations in the male relate to altered dominant hemispheric functions with disruption of frontal interhemispheric relationships.