While neuro-cognitive work examining aggression has examined patients with conditions at increased risk for aggression or individuals self-reporting past aggression, little work has attempted to identify neuro-cognitive markers associated with observed/recorded aggression. The goal of the current study was to determine the extent to which aggression by youth in the first three months of residential care was associated with atypical responsiveness to threat stimuli. This functional MRI study involved 98 (68 male; mean age = 15.96 [sd = 1.52]) adolescents in residential care performing a looming threat task involving images of threatening and neutral human faces or animals that appeared to be either loom or recede. Level of aggression was negatively associated with responding to looming stimuli (irrespective of whether these were threatening or neutral) within regions including bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, right inferior parietal lobule, right superior/middle temporal gyrus and a region of right uncus proximal to the amygdala. These data indicate that aggression level is associated with a decrease in responsiveness to a basic threat cue-looming stimuli. Reduced threat responsiveness likely results in the individual being less able to represent the negative consequences that may result from engaging in aggression, thereby increasing the risk for aggressive episodes.

中文翻译：

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对迫在眉睫的刺激的神经反应降低与攻击性增加有关

虽然检查攻击性的神经认知工作已经检查了攻击性风险增加的患者或自我报告过去攻击性的个体，但很少有工作试图识别与观察/记录的攻击性相关的神经认知标记。本研究的目的是确定青少年在寄宿护理的前三个月中的攻击行为与对威胁刺激的非典型反应之间的关系。这项功能性 MRI 研究涉及 98 名（68 名男性；平均年龄 = 15.96 [sd = 1.52]）寄宿护理青少年，他们执行一项迫在眉睫的威胁任务，涉及威胁性和中性的人脸或动物的图像，这些图像似乎隐约可见或后退。攻击性水平与双侧额下回、右顶下小叶、右上/颞中回和靠近杏仁核的右钩回区域等区域内迫在眉睫的刺激（无论这些刺激是威胁性的还是中性的）的反应呈负相关。 。这些数据表明，攻击性水平与对基本威胁线索迫在眉睫的刺激的反应能力下降有关。威胁响应能力的降低可能会导致个人无法表现出攻击行为可能导致的负面后果，从而增加发生攻击事件的风险。