ArticleBrain imaging and behavior2019
Anger provocation increases limbic and decreases medial prefrontal cortex connectivity with the left amygdala in reactive aggressive violent offenders.
Article in Brain imaging and behavior, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 73 citations in OpenAlex.
- The analysis of the prefrontal cortex and its facilitator role of violence: conclusions of a systematic review and meta-analysis based on neuroimaging results.Brain imaging and behavior · 2026Pooled it
- Using physiological biomarkers in forensic psychiatry: a scoping review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- A systematic review of measures of emotion regulation in forensic settings.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Neural correlates of aggression in personality disorders from the perspective of DSM-5 maladaptive traits: a systematic review.Translational psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Decoding the bidirectional links between alcohol misuse and aggression: toward a unified translational framework.Psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Vasopressin 1a Receptor Antagonists for Pathological Aggression in Neurodegenerative and Other CNS Diseases.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Identifying affective state via clustering of temporal variability in limbic activity and mediating role of negative emotion.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- The functional connectivity between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex underlying the association between self-control and delay discounting.Brain structure & function · 2025Article
- Integrative Functions of the Hypothalamus: Linking Cognition, Emotion and Physiology for Well-being and Adaptability.Annals of neurosciences · 2025Review
- Using Machine Learning to Determine a Functional Classifier of Retaliation and Its Association With Aggression.JAACAP open · 2025Article
- The Startle Response and Prepulse Inhibition in Psychosis and Violence: A Combined Electromyography and Electroencephalography Study.Schizophrenia bulletin open · 2025Article
- Aggression Unleashed: Neural Circuits from Scent to Brain.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- The role of functional emotion circuits in distinct dimensions of psychopathology in youth.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- A fronto-insular network underlies individual variations in anger expression and control.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Intimate partner violence perpetration among veterans: associations with neuropsychiatric symptoms and limbic microstructure.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
- Atypical functional connectome is associated with low reflective functioning in incarcerated adolescents.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Plasma Endocannabinoid Levels in Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder and Healthy Controls.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Fetal Frontolimbic Connectivity Prospectively Associates With Aggression in Toddlers.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2023Article
- Prediction of Impulsive Aggression Based on Video Images.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Resting-state functional connectivity and socioemotional processes in male perpetrators of intimate partner violence against women.Scientific reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Neurobiological models propose reactive aggression as a failure in emotion regulation, caused by an imbalance between prefrontal cortical control and excessive bottom-up signals of negative affect by limbic regions, including the amygdala. Therefore, we hypothesize a negative correlation between PFC and amygdala activity (pre/post resting-state scans) in violent offenders. In this study resting-state fMRI was administered before and after an emotion (anger and happiness) provocation or engagement task within 18 male violent offenders scoring high on reactive aggression, and 18 male non-offender controls. Research in emotional pre/post resting-state showed altered connectivity by task performance. Therefore, bilateral amygdala region of interest (ROI) whole brain functional connectivity analysis tested dynamic change differences between pre and post resting-state connectivity between groups. Self-reported anger showed a positive significant relationship with medial prefrontal cortex activity in the pre-task scan and significantly increased during the emotion task in both the violent and control group. Imaging results showed a significant decrease in amygdala - medial prefrontal functional connectivity in the violent offenders and an increase in the non-offender controls after the emotion task. The opposite pattern was found for amygdala connectivity with the (para) limbic regions: violent offenders showed increased connectivity and non-offender controls showed decreased connectivity. The present results indicate that reactive aggression might stem from a focus on emotion processing, as indicated by an increase in limbic functional connectivity. The combination of a focus on emotion, along with a lack of medial prefrontal cortex regulation, has the potential to grow out of control e.g. in reactive aggression.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.