Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120, Magdeburg, Germany.
Department of Neurology, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
Brain Struct Funct. 2024 Jan;229(1):31-46. doi: 10.1007/s00429-023-02715-x. Epub 2023 Oct 11.
Aggression occurs across the population ranging on a symptom continuum. Most previous studies have used magnetic resonance imaging in clinical/forensic samples, which is associated with several confounding factors. The present study examined structural brain characteristics in two healthy samples differing only in their propensity for aggressive behavior. Voxel- and surface-based morphometry (SBM) analyses were performed on 29 male martial artists and 32 age-matched male controls. Martial artists had significantly increased mean gray matter volume in two frontal (left superior frontal gyrus and bilateral anterior cingulate cortex) and one parietal (bilateral posterior cingulate gyrus and precuneus) brain clusters compared to controls (whole brain: p < 0.001, cluster level: family-wise error (FWE)-corrected). SBM analyses revealed a trend for greater gyrification indices in martial artists compared to controls in the left lateral orbital frontal cortex and the left pars orbitalis (whole brain: p < 0.001, cluster level: FWE-corrected). The results indicate brain structural differences between martial artists and controls in frontal and parietal brain areas critical for emotion processing/inhibition of emotions as well as empathic processes. The present study highlights the importance of studying healthy subjects with a propensity for aggressive behavior in future structural MRI research on aggression.
攻击性存在于整个人群中，表现为一种症状连续体。大多数先前的研究都使用磁共振成像对临床/法医样本进行研究，而这与许多混杂因素有关。本研究在两个健康样本中检查了结构大脑特征，这两个样本仅在其攻击性行为倾向方面有所不同。对 29 名男性武术家和 32 名年龄匹配的男性对照组进行了体素和表面形态计量学（SBM）分析。与对照组相比，武术家的两个额（左额上回和双侧前扣带皮层）和一个顶（双侧后扣带皮层和楔前叶）脑区的平均灰质体积显著增加（全脑：p < 0.001，簇水平：家族性错误（FWE）校正）。SBM 分析显示，与对照组相比，武术家的左侧眶额外侧皮质和左侧眶额内侧（全脑：p < 0.001，簇水平：FWE 校正）的脑回指数有更大的趋势。结果表明，武术家和对照组在额叶和顶叶脑区存在脑结构差异，这些脑区对情绪处理/抑制情绪以及同理心过程至关重要。本研究强调了在未来的攻击性结构磁共振成像研究中，研究具有攻击性倾向的健康受试者的重要性。
