Lund Clinical Research on Externalizing and Developmental Psychopathology, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, Lund, Sweden; Centre for Ethics, Law and Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; Research Department, Regional Forensic Psychiatric Clinic, Växjö, Sweden.
Lund Clinical Research on Externalizing and Developmental Psychopathology, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, Lund, Sweden; Centre for Ethics, Law and Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; Research Department, Regional Forensic Psychiatric Clinic, Växjö, Sweden.
Biol Psychol. 2022 Feb;168:108245. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108245. Epub 2021 Dec 24.
Aggressive and antisocial behaviors are detrimental to society and constitute major challenges in forensic mental health settings, yet the associated neural circuitry remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated differences in aggressive and antisocial behaviors between healthy controls (n = 20) and violent mentally disordered offenders (MDOs; n = 26), and examined associations between aggressive and antisocial behaviors, behavioral inhibitory control, and neurophysiological activity across the whole sample (n = 46). Event-related potentials were obtained using EEG while participants completed a Go/NoGo response inhibition task, and aggressive and antisocial behaviors were assessed with the Life History of Aggression (LHA) instrument. Using a robust Bayesian linear regression approach, we found that MDOs scored substantially higher than healthy controls on LHA Aggression and Antisocial subscales. Using the whole sample and after adjusting for age, we found that scores on the LHA Aggression and Antisocial subscales were robustly associated with longer NoGo P3 latency, and less robustly with longer NoGo N2 latency. Post-hoc analyzes suggested that healthy controls and MDOs exhibited similar associations. With several limitations in mind, we suggest that prolonged NoGo P3 latency, reflecting decreased neural efficiency during the later stages of conflict monitoring or outcome evaluation, is a potential neurobehavioral correlate of aggressive and antisocial behaviors.
攻击性行为和反社会行为对社会有害，构成了法医心理健康领域的主要挑战，但相关的神经回路仍知之甚少。在这里，我们调查了健康对照组（n=20）和暴力精神障碍罪犯（MDO；n=26）之间的攻击性行为和反社会行为差异，并在整个样本（n=46）中检查了攻击性行为和反社会行为、行为抑制控制和神经生理活动之间的关联。参与者在完成 Go/NoGo 反应抑制任务时使用 EEG 获得事件相关电位，并用生活史攻击量表（LHA）评估攻击性行为和反社会行为。使用强大的贝叶斯线性回归方法，我们发现 MDO 在 LHA 攻击和反社会分量表上的得分明显高于健康对照组。使用整个样本并在调整年龄后，我们发现 LHA 攻击和反社会分量表的得分与更长的 NoGo P3 潜伏期显著相关，与更长的 NoGo N2 潜伏期的相关性较弱。事后分析表明，健康对照组和 MDO 表现出相似的关联。考虑到几个局限性，我们认为较长的 NoGo P3 潜伏期反映了在冲突监测或结果评估的后期阶段神经效率的降低，是攻击性行为和反社会行为的潜在神经行为相关物。
