a Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Pritzker School of Medicine , Division of Biological Sciences, The University of Chicago , Chicago , IL , USA.
Soc Neurosci. 2014;9(2):118-29. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2013.866596. Epub 2014 Jan 13.
Cognitive and biological processes play a role in human aggression. However, relatively little is known about the neural correlates of cognitive processes in aggressive individuals, particularly as they unfold during an aggressive encounter. We investigated whether the P3 event-related potential (ERP) discriminates aggressive versus nonaggressive individuals during a provocative, aggressive encounter. Forty-eight participants (23 men and 25 women) were classified as aggressive or nonaggressive based on self-reported life history of aggression. Aggressive behavior was assessed using a modification of a well-validated laboratory task during which the participant and a fictitious opponent ostensibly delivered and received noise blasts of low, medium, and high intensity. Provocation was manipulated by altering the level of noise set by the opponent. Aggression was defined as the number of high-intensity noise blasts the participant set for the opponent. As predicted, P3 amplitude in response to provocation differed as a function of aggressive history. Nonaggressive individuals showed enhanced P3 when provoked by the opponent relative to low provocation, but this effect was absent in aggressive individuals. The results suggest that aggressive individuals engage fewer neural processing resources in response to provoking social cues, which may reflect aberrant cognitive and emotional processes.
认知和生物过程在人类攻击中起作用。然而，对于攻击性个体的认知过程的神经相关性，特别是在攻击性遭遇中展开时，我们知之甚少。我们研究了在挑衅性、攻击性遭遇期间，P3 事件相关电位 (ERP) 是否可以区分攻击性个体和非攻击性个体。48 名参与者（23 名男性和 25 名女性）根据其攻击性的生活史被分类为攻击性或非攻击性。攻击性行为使用经过修改的经过充分验证的实验室任务进行评估，在此期间，参与者和虚构的对手显然会发出低、中、高强度的噪音。通过改变对手设定的噪声水平来操纵挑衅。攻击性的定义是参与者为对手设定的高强度噪声爆发的次数。正如预期的那样，对挑衅的反应中 P3 幅度随攻击性历史而变化。与低挑衅相比，非攻击性个体在受到对手挑衅时表现出增强的 P3，但这种影响在攻击性个体中不存在。结果表明，攻击性个体在对挑衅性社会线索做出反应时，动用的神经处理资源较少，这可能反映了异常的认知和情绪过程。
