Aggression represents a significant public health concern, causing serious physical and psychological harm. Although many studies have sought to characterize the etiology of aggression, research on the contributions of risk factors that span multiple levels of analysis for explaining aggressive behavior is lacking. To address this gap, we investigated the direct and unique contributions of cortical thickness (level 1), pathological personality traits (level 2) and trauma exposure (level 3) for explaining lifetime physical aggression in a high-risk sample of community adults (N = 129, 47.3% men). First, the frequency of lifetime aggression was inversely associated with cortical thickness in regions of prefrontal and temporal cortices that have been implicated in executive functioning, inhibitory mechanisms and socio-emotional processing. Further, aggression was positively associated with pathological personality traits (antagonism and disinhibition) and exposure to assaultive trauma. Notably, all three levels of analysis (cortical thickness, pathological personality traits and assaultive trauma exposure) explained non-overlapping variance in aggressive behavior when examined simultaneously in integrative models. Together, the findings provide a multilevel assessment of the biopsychosocial factors associated with the frequency of aggression. They also indicate that cortical thickness explains novel variance in these harmful behaviors not captured by well-established personality and environmental risk factors for aggression.

中文翻译：

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终身攻击的多层次检查：整合皮质厚度、人格病理学和创伤暴露

侵略是一个重大的公共卫生问题，会造成严重的身心伤害。尽管许多研究试图描述攻击性的病因，但缺乏跨越多个分析水平来解释攻击性行为的风险因素的贡献的研究。为了解决这一差距，我们调查了皮质厚度（1 级）、病理人格特征（2 级）和创伤暴露（3 级）对解释社区成人高风险样本（N = 129, 47.3% 男性）。首先，终生攻击的频率与前额叶和颞叶皮层区域的皮层厚度呈负相关，这些区域与执行功能、抑制机制和社会情绪处理有关。进一步，攻击性与病理性人格特征（对抗和去抑制）和遭受攻击性创伤呈正相关。值得注意的是，当在综合模型中同时检查时，所有三个级别的分析（皮质厚度、病理人格特征和攻击性创伤暴露）都解释了攻击性行为的非重叠差异。总之，这些发现提供了对与攻击频率相关的生物心理社会因素的多层次评估。他们还表明，皮质厚度解释了这些有害行为的新差异，这些有害行为没有被成熟的人格和攻击性环境风险因素捕捉到。当在综合模型中同时检查时，所有三个级别的分析（皮质厚度、病理人格特征和攻击性创伤暴露）都解释了攻击性行为的非重叠差异。总之，这些发现提供了对与攻击频率相关的生物心理社会因素的多层次评估。他们还表明，皮质厚度解释了这些有害行为的新差异，这些有害行为没有被成熟的人格和攻击性环境风险因素捕捉到。当在综合模型中同时检查时，所有三个级别的分析（皮质厚度、病理人格特征和攻击性创伤暴露）都解释了攻击性行为的非重叠差异。总之，这些发现提供了对与攻击频率相关的生物心理社会因素的多层次评估。他们还表明，皮质厚度解释了这些有害行为的新差异，这些有害行为没有被成熟的人格和攻击性环境风险因素捕捉到。研究结果提供了对与攻击频率相关的生物心理社会因素的多层次评估。他们还表明，皮质厚度解释了这些有害行为的新差异，这些有害行为没有被成熟的人格和攻击性环境风险因素捕捉到。研究结果提供了对与攻击频率相关的生物心理社会因素的多层次评估。他们还表明，皮质厚度解释了这些有害行为的新差异，这些有害行为没有被成熟的人格和攻击性环境风险因素捕捉到。