Sex differences in the neural correlates of aggression

Although sex differences in aggression have been investigated for decades, little is known about the underlying neurobiology of this phenomenon. To address this gap, the present study implemented a social reactive aggression paradigm in 20 women and 22 men, employing a modified Taylor Aggression Tas...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brain Structure and Function 2018-12, Vol.223 (9), p.4115-4124
Main Authors: Repple, Jonathan, Habel, Ute, Wagels, Lisa, Pawliczek, Christina M., Schneider, Frank, Kohn, Nils
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aggression
Aggression - physiology
Aggressive behavior
Aggressiveness
Amygdala
Amygdala - physiology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Brain - physiology
Brain Mapping
Cell Biology
Cortex (cingulate)
Emotions
Female
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Gender differences
Gyrus Cinguli - physiology
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Nervous system
Neurology
Neurosciences
Original Article
Prefrontal Cortex - physiology
Rectum
Sex Characteristics
Sex differences
Young Adult
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Summary:Although sex differences in aggression have been investigated for decades, little is known about the underlying neurobiology of this phenomenon. To address this gap, the present study implemented a social reactive aggression paradigm in 20 women and 22 men, employing a modified Taylor Aggression Task (mTAT) to provoke aggressive behavior in an fMRI setting. Subjects were provoked by money subtraction from a fake opponent and given the opportunity to retaliate likewise. In the absence of behavioral differences, male and female subjects showed differential brain activation patterns in response to provocation. Men had higher left amygdala activation during high provocation. This amygdala activation correlated with trait anger scores in men, but not in women. Also, men showed a positive association between orbitofrontal cortex, rectal gyrus and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity in the provocation contrast and their tendency to respond aggressively, whereas women displayed a negative association. As the rectal gyrus and OFC have been attributed a crucial role in automatic emotion regulation, this finding points toward the assumption that highly aggressive men use automatic emotion regulation to a greater extent in response to provocation compared to highly aggressive women.
ISSN:1863-2653
1863-2661
0340-2061
DOI:10.1007/s00429-018-1739-5