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\"Why do some kids from good environments become mass murderers? Is there actually such a thing as a natural-born killer? And, if so, what can we do to identify and treat those born with a predisposition to criminal behavior? For more than three decades Adrian Raine has sought answers to these questions through his pioneering research on the biological basis for violence. In this book, he presents the growing body of evidence that shows how genetics and environmental influences can conspire to create a criminal brain, and how something as seemingly innocent as a low resting heart rate can give rise to a violent personality. Bristling with ingenious experiments, surprising data, and shocking case studies, this is also a clear-eyed inquiry into the thorny ethical issues this science raises about prevention and punishment. Passionate, courageous, and at times controversial, The Anatomy of Violence is a groundbreaking work that will challenge your core human values and perspectives on violence.\" -- Back cover.

Abstract Increased aggression and impulsivity represent a key component of several psychiatric disorders, including substance use disorder, which is often associated with deficient prefrontal brain activation. Thus, innovative tools to increase cognitive control are highly warranted. The current study investigates the potential of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a tool to modulate cortical activation and to increase cognitive control in individuals with a high potential for impulsive and aggressive behavior. In a double-blind, sham-controlled study, we applied anodal tDCS over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in an all-male sample of alcohol-dependent patients (AD), tobacco users (TU) and healthy controls (HC), who completed the Taylor Aggression Paradigm and Stop Signal Reaction Time Task twice. While there were no observable effects of tDCS in controls, the results revealed altered aggressive behavior in AD following active stimulation. Specifically, these individuals did not show the standard increase in aggression over time seen in the other groups. Furthermore, improved response inhibition was found in AD and TU following active but not sham stimulation. Our study demonstrates that prefrontal tDCS improves our laboratory measure of impulse control in at-risk groups, illustrating the importance of sample characteristics such as nicotine intake and personality traits for understanding the effects of brain stimulation.

This study provides a comprehensive overview of the materials and methods used to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of biofeedback in the treatment of aggressive episodes in children and adolescents. Aggressive episodes are common in various disorders and are associated with deficits in emotional processing and impulse control, primarily due to dysfunctions in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex (PFC). These brain regions also regulate physiological arousal, influencing heart rate and other autonomic functions even before aggression manifests. These early signals can be shown to the person (biofeedback) reinforcing therapeutic skills to enhance emotional regulation and reduce aggression. A total of 70 participants will be recruited for a randomized controlled trial (RCT). All participants will receive therapy, although only the intervention group will incorporate biofeedback. The experimental study will be split into three blocks: (1) Home Monitoring: Physiological signals will be recorded using a smartwatch, and aggressive episodes will be captured with a camera; (2) Laboratory Assessment: Participants will attend three sessions, where therapists will induce aggressive reactions, using the video clips recorded at home. Simultaneously, real-time physiological signals will be measured. These sessions will also include relaxation periods before and after the provoked outburst; (3) Therapeutic Intervention: Similar to the laboratory assessment block, therapists will induce aggressive responses in three sessions; however, in this block, participants will receive therapy. Additionally, participants who belong to the intervention group, will include biofeedack in the therapy. Biofeedback is focused on heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and skin conductance level (SCL). The CACIA, the Stroop, and other pre- and post-experimental tests. will be used to assess the differences between the control and intervention groups. Emotions play a fundamental role in decision-making, social interactions, and mental health. Emotional dysregulation often leads to aggression, irritability, and anxiety. Showing physiological responses to patients, such as heart rate variability and skin conductance, may improve emotional awareness and regulation. This study aims to verify the effectiveness of including biofeedback in such therapy.

Perception-fuelled behaviour Hormones are known to modulate social interactions between animals, with testosterone classically thought to induce aggressive behaviour. Although this categorization has been extrapolated to humans — hence the familiar concept of 'testosterone-fuelled' behaviour — it is unclear whether testosterone does in fact promote antisocial actions. In a bargaining game, a single dose of testosterone was found to increase fair behaviour, reduce conflict and enhance social interactions. But those subjects who were led to believe that they had received testosterone, whether or not they actually had, behaved more unfairly than those who thought they had received placebo, again whether or not they actually did. Thus the negative, antisocial connotation of increasing testosterone seems strong enough to induce negative social behaviour even when the biological result is actually the opposite. Evidence from animal studies shows that testosterone can induce aggressive behaviour, but whether this extrapolates to humans is an area of debate. The sublingual administration of a single dose of testosterone in women is now shown to cause a substantial increase in fair bargaining behaviour, although subjects who believed they received testosterone behaved much more unfairly than those who thought they received a placebo. Both biosociological and psychological models, as well as animal research, suggest that testosterone has a key role in social interactions 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 . Evidence from animal studies in rodents shows that testosterone causes aggressive behaviour towards conspecifics 7 . Folk wisdom generalizes and adapts these findings to humans, suggesting that testosterone induces antisocial, egoistic, or even aggressive human behaviours. However, many researchers have questioned this folk hypothesis 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , arguing that testosterone is primarily involved in status-related behaviours in challenging social interactions, but causal evidence that discriminates between these views is sparse. Here we show that the sublingual administration of a single dose of testosterone in women causes a substantial increase in fair bargaining behaviour, thereby reducing bargaining conflicts and increasing the efficiency of social interactions. However, subjects who believed that they received testosterone—regardless of whether they actually received it or not—behaved much more unfairly than those who believed that they were treated with placebo. Thus, the folk hypothesis seems to generate a strong negative association between subjects’ beliefs and the fairness of their offers, even though testosterone administration actually causes a substantial increase in the frequency of fair bargaining offers in our experiment.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are both characterized by high impulsivity and difficulties in controlling anger and aggression. In BPD, comorbid ADHD may further increase impulsivity. For both disorders, altered MR spectroscopy levels of the neurotransmitters glutamate and GABA as well as some correlations with impulsivity were previously reported. The objective of this study was to investigate the neurotransmitters glutamate and GABA in relation to impulsivity and aggression as expressed in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in groups of female patients with BPD and ADHD, respectively. Associations of glutamate and GABA levels with further BPD (symptom severity) and ADHD aspects (hyperactivity and inattention) were exploratively evaluated. 1H MR spectra were acquired at 3T to determine glutamate to total creatine ratios (Glu/tCr) and GABA levels from the ACC in a BPD group (n=26), an ADHD group (n=22), and a healthy control (HC) group (n=30); all participants were females. Both patient groups showed higher scores on self-reported impulsivity, anger, and aggression compared with HCs. ACC GABA levels were significantly lower in ADHD than HC. Although measures of impulsivity were positively related to glutamate and negatively to GABA, for aggression only a negative correlation with GABA could be demonstrated. These data provide human in vivo evidence for the role of ACC Glu/tCr and GABA in impulsivity and aggression. If distinct associations of Glu/tCr and GABA for BPD and ADHD can be confirmed in future studies, this might yield implications for more specific pharmacological treatments.

Objective Melatonin, a hormone released preferentially by the pineal gland during the night, affects circadian rhythms and aging processes. As animal studies have shown that melatonin increases resident-intruder aggression, this study aimed to investigate the impact of melatonin treatment on human aggression. Methods In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled between-participant design, 63 healthy male volunteers completed the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP) after oral administration of melatonin or placebo. Results We found that when given the opportunity to administer high or low punishments to an opponent, participants who ingested melatonin selected the high punishment more often than those who ingested placebo. The increased reactive aggression under melatonin administration remained after controlling for inhibitory ability, trait aggression, trait impulsiveness, circadian preference, perceptual sensibility to noise, and changes in subjective sleepiness and emotional states. Conclusion This study provides novel and direct evidence for the involvement of melatonin in human social processes.

It has recently been theorized that the frontal asymmetry of approach- and avoidance-related motivation is mirrored in the posterolateral cerebellum. Accordingly, left-to-right dominant cerebellar activity is associated with avoidance-related motivation, whereas right-to-left dominant cerebellar activity is associated with approach-related motivation. The aim of this study was to examine the cerebellar asymmetry of motivational direction in approach-related behavior in the context of aggression. In this randomized double-blind sham-controlled crossover study, thirty healthy right-handed adult volunteers received 2 mA active or sham left cathodal-right anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the cerebellum on two separate occasions while engaging in the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP) task to measure aggressive behavior. Self-reported state anger was assessed before, halfway and immediately after the task, and heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) were measured during the task. No main effects of tDCS on aggressive behavior, heart rate and HRV were found. Higher state anger before and during the PSAP task was associated with increased aggressive behavior in the active compared to sham tDCS condition. Aggressive behavior was positively correlated with heart rate during active tDCS, while an inverse association was observed during sham tDCS. Results provide support for the cerebellar asymmetry of motivational direction in approach-related behavior and illustrate the importance of affective state-dependency in tDCS-related effects.

•Effects of 28 days of testosterone on brain function during energy deficit were examined.•Testosterone altered brain function assessed by fMRI during 2 executive tasks.•Testosterone increased self-reported anger during a provoked aggression task. Clinical administration of testosterone is widely used due to a variety of claimed physical and cognitive benefits. Testosterone administration is associated with enhanced brain and cognitive function, as well as mood, in energy-balanced males, although such relationships are controversial. However, the effects of testosterone administration on the brains of energy-deficient males, whose testosterone concentrations are likely to be well below normal, have not been investigated. This study collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 50 non-obese young men before (PRE) and shortly after (POST) 28 days of severe exercise-and-diet-induced energy deficit during which testosterone (200 mg testosterone enanthate per week in sesame oil, TEST) or placebo (sesame seed oil only, PLA) were administered. Scans were also collected after a post-energy-deficit weight regain period (REC). Participants completed five fMRI tasks that assessed aspects of: 1) executive function (Attention Network Task or ANT; Multi-Source Interference Task or MSIT; AXE Continuous Processing Task or AXCPT); 2) aggressive behavior (Provoked Aggression Task or AGG); and 3) latent emotion processing (Emotional Face Processing or EMO). Changes over time in task-related fMRI activation in a priori defined task-critical brain regions during performance of 2 out of 5 tasks were significantly different between TEST and PLA, with TEST showing greater levels of activation during ANT in the right anterior cingulate gyrus at POST and during MSIT in several brain regions at REC. Changes over time in objective task performance were not statistically significant; testosterone-treated volunteers had greater self-reported anger during AGG at POST. Testosterone administration can alter some aspects of brain function during severe energy deficit and increase levels of anger.

One year after participating in the Research-based, Developmentally Informed (REDI) intervention or \"usual practice\" Head Start, the learning and behavioral outcomes of 356 children (17% Hispanic, 25% African American; 54% girls; M age = 4.59 years at initial assessment) were assessed. In addition, their 202 kindergarten classrooms were evaluated on quality of teacher–student interactions, emphasis on reading instruction, and school-level student achievement. Hierarchical linear analyses revealed that the REDI intervention promoted kindergarten phonemic decoding skills, learning engagement, and competent social problem-solving skills, and reduced aggressive–disruptive behavior. Intervention effects on social competence and inattention were moderated by kindergarten context, with effects strongest when children entered schools with low student achievement. Implications are discussed for developmental models of school readiness and early educational programs.

Research has shown that exposure to violent media increases aggression. However, the neural underpinnings of violent-media-related aggression are poorly understood. Additionally, few experiments have tested hypotheses concerning how to reduce violent-media-related aggression. In this experiment, we focused on a brain area involved in the regulation of aggressive impulses—the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC). We tested the hypothesis that brain polarization through anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over rVLPFC reduces aggression related to violent video games. Participants ( N = 79) were randomly assigned to play a violent or a nonviolent video game while receiving anodal or sham stimulation. Afterward, participants aggressed against an ostensible partner using the Taylor aggression paradigm (Taylor Journal of Personality, 35, 297–310, 1967), which measures both unprovoked and provoked aggression. Among those who received sham stimulation, unprovoked aggression was significantly higher for violent-game players than for nonviolent-game players. Among those who received anodal stimulation, unprovoked aggression did not differ for violent- and nonviolent-game players. Thus, anodal stimulation reduced unprovoked aggression in violent-game players. No significant effects were found for provoked aggression, suggesting tit-for-tat responding. This experiment sheds light on one possible neural underpinning of violent-media-related aggression—the rVLPFC, a brain area involved in regulating negative feelings and aggressive impulses.