http://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...he-sexual-side-effects-of-head-trauma/260213/ " This got me thinking of my main line of work, sex research. As it turns out, another group of work acquaintances of mine, based at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, has been working to ascertain the bases for pedophilia. Although no one can point to a simple cause-effect chain for any sexual orientation, the Toronto group, led by psychologists Ray Blanchard and James Cantor, has found evidence that pedophiles, as a group, seem to have a greater history of childhood head trauma than non-pedophiles. For example, a 2003 study of 685 men, published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, found that "pedophilic patients reported more head injuries before age 13 than did the nonpedophilic patients." While it is true that the head injuries we are now most concerned with in football occur after age 13, it is also true that most NFL and NCAA players and coaches (like Sandusky) are likely to have started getting their heads game-bashed as children. Moreover, the medical literature contains reports of the onset of "hypersexuality" and altered sexual preference - including the development of pedophilic behaviors - following brain injuries in adulthood. When I asked psychologist Ray Blanchard about this, he expressed skepticism that this really represents a change of sexual orientation, given what researchers know about the nature of human sexual orientation. Blanchard said he instead thinks it is "more likely that brain injuries in adulthood disinhibit sexual behaviors (including dormant paraphilias) rather than establishing them." In other words, after a brain injury, a man may no longer effectively suppress sexual desires he has already long had, and he may lose the ability to stop himself from harming others he sexually desires. A study published last year in the Journal of Sexual Medicine reported on eight men who in mid-life showed evidence of "acquired pedophilic behavior from brain disease." Because some of these men also showed other forms of sexually abusive behavior, the authors of this report noted that certain brain injuries can result in "broader disinhibition deficit or hypersexuality . . . not just focused on children." Indeed, a general association between brain injury and poor sexual impulse control has now been well established. "