Journal
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
Volume 57, Issue 1, Pages 7-15Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2004.10.008
Keywords
aggression; amygdala; anterior cingulate cortex; conduct disorder; emotion; functional magnetic resonance imaging
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Background: It is widely held that aggression and antisocial behavior arise as a consequence of a deficiency in responding to emotional cues in the social environment. We asked whether neural responses evoked by affect-laden pictures would be abnormal in adolescents with conduct disorder (CD). Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging during passive viewing of pictures with neutral or strong negative affective valence was performed in 13 male adolescents with severe CD aged 9 to 15 years and in 14 healthy age-matched control subjects. Results: Main effects for negative-neutral affective valence included activations in the amygdala and hippocampus, ventral extrastriate visual cortex, and intraparietal sulcus bilaterally. There was a significant group-by-condition interaction in the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex that was due to a pronounced deactivation in the patient group during viewing of negative pictures. When correcting for anxiety and depressive symptoms, we additionally found a reduced responsiveness of the left amygdala to negative pictures in patients compared with control subjects. Conclusions: We suggest that these findings reflect an impairment of both the recognition of emotional stimuli and the cognitive control of emotional behaviour in patients with CD, resulting in a propensity for aggressive behaviour.
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