Lifelong premature ejaculation (PE) is one of the most prevalent male sexual dysfunctions. It is still not well known about the possible neural mechanisms of lifelong PE. This study tried to investigate the abnormal characteristics of brain functional networks of lifelong PE and to assess relationships of PE-related functional abnormalities with clinical symptoms. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data and clinical symptoms were collected from 45 lifelong PE patients and 37 healthy controls (HCs) since 2016, including disease and sexual life history, intravaginal ejaculatory latency time measured by stopwatch and other scales. The degree centrality (DC) approach were applied to distinguish altered brain functions between the two groups (p < 0.05, false discovery rate corrected). Correlation analysis was then performed to examine relationships between the imaging findings and clinical symptoms (p < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected). Results showed that compared with HCs, lifelong PE patients had increased DC value in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), precuneus and primary somatosensory cortex (SI) as well as decreased DC value in the insula and orbitofrontal cortex. After controlling for anxiety and depression levels, the significant difference in the mPFC was not found. The DC value in the SI positively correlated with premature ejaculation diagnostic tool (PEDT) score in the patients. The present findings indicate that lifelong PE patients have altered DC in brain regions involved in sensation, motivation and inhibitory control processing. Our study may improve our understanding and provide a new sight into the further research of lifelong PE.

终生早泄 (PE) 是最普遍的男性性功能障碍之一。关于终身 PE 的可能神经机制尚不清楚。本研究试图调查终生 PE 脑功能网络的异常特征，并评估 PE 相关功能异常与临床症状的关系。自2016年以来，收集了45名终生PE患者和37名健康对照者（HC）的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）数据和临床症状，包括疾病和性生活史、秒表测量的阴道内射精潜伏时间等量表。应用度中心性 (DC) 方法来区分两组之间改变的大脑功能 ( p < 0.05，纠正错误发现率）。然后进行相关性分析以检查影像学发现与临床症状之间的关系（p < 0.05，Bonferroni 校正）。结果显示，与 HCs 相比，终生 PE 患者的内侧前额叶皮层 (mPFC)、楔前叶和初级体感皮层 (SI) 的 DC 值增加，而岛叶和眶额叶皮层的 DC 值降低。在控制焦虑和抑郁水平后，未发现 mPFC 的显着差异。SI 中的 DC 值与患者的早泄诊断工具 (PEDT) 评分呈正相关。目前的研究结果表明，终身 PE 患者在涉及感觉、动机和抑制控制处理的大脑区域中改变了 DC。我们的研究可能会提高我们的理解，并为终身体育的进一步研究提供新的视角。