Brain morphology of childhood aggressive behavior: A multi-informant study in school-age children

Abstract

ObjectiveFew studies have focused on the neuroanatomy of aggressive behavior in children younger than 10 years. Here, we explored the neuroanatomical correlates of aggression in a population-based sample of 6- to 9-year-old children using a multiple-informant approach.MethodsMagnetic resonance (MR) scans were acquired from 566 children from the Generation R study who participated in the Berkeley Puppet Interview and whose parents had completed the Child Behavior Checklist. Linear regression analyses were used to examine associations between aggression and amygdala and hippocampal volume. We performed surface-based analyses to study the association between aggression and cortical thickness, surface area, and gyrification.ResultsAggressive behavior was associated with smaller amygdala (p < .05) but not hippocampal volume. Aggression was associated with a thinner cortex in the left precentral cortex (p < .01) and in a cluster including the right inferior parietal, supramarginal, and postcentral cortex (p < .001). Gender moderated the association between aggression and cortical thickness in the right medial posterior cortex (p = .001) and the right prefrontal cortex (p < .001). Aggression was associated with decreased gyrification in a large cluster including the right precentral, postcentral, frontal, and parietal cortex (p = .01). Moreover, aggression was associated with decreased gyrification in the right occipital and parietal cortex (p = .02).ConclusionWe found novel evidence that childhood aggressive behavior is related to decreased amygdala volume, decreased sensorimotor cortical thickness, and decreased global right hemisphere gyrification. Aggression is related to cortical thickness in regions associated with the default mode network, with negative associations in boys and positive associations in girls.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.3758/s13415-015-0344-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Neuroimaging contrast across the cortical hierarchy is the feature maximally linked to behavior and demographics

“…First, the set of subject measures we used include real-life functions and demographic measures, such as education, income and life satisfaction, which can contribute significantly to the identified CCA modes. Indeed, the cortical thinning has been observed at the middle and superior frontal gyrus in subjects with high-level life satisfaction (20), as well as the primary sensory/motor areas in adults with psychopathy or violent antisocial personality disorder (21,22) or school children showing aggressive behaviors (19). These findings are to a large extent in accordance with the divergent changes of the cortical thickness we found here.…”

“…For example, the resting-state connectivity has been linked to structural connectivity measured with diffusion imaging (13), micro-structural properties such as cortical myelination (14), and morphometric measures such as the cortical thickness (15). On the other hand, inter-subject variability in brain structures and morphology, particularly the cortical thickness, has been repeatedly linked to individual differences in various subject measures, including intelligence, aggression, and life satisfaction (3,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22). Therefore, it would be interesting to know whether this positive-negative mode of connectivity-behavior covariation is associated with changes of certain structural/morphometric brain properties.…”

Brain structural correlates of irritability: Findings in a large healthy cohort

“…Studies in children and adolescents have also suggested a modulating effect of gender on the association between right ACC and aggression, pointing to a particular effect in aggressive boys [Boes et al, 2008], and similar effects (in ACC and gender interactions) in healthy male adolescents [Visser et al, 2014]. There is also evidence for a negative correlation of aggression and amygdala volume from a large cohort children study [Thijssen et al, 2015], and a similar effect has been shown in healthy adults [Matthies et al, 2012;Pardini et al, 2014]. The co-variance pattern of amygdala volume and (global) cortical thickness in children, adolescents, and young adults has been shown to correlate with aggression, and this effect was mediated by testosterone [Nguyen et al, 2016].…”

Neural networks of aggression: ALE meta-analyses on trait and elicited aggression

“…The brain systems implicated in aggression were qualitatively postulated in a wider perturbed frontolimbic network functionally associated with affective processing, self-regulation, and reinforcement-based decision making (Davidson et al 2000;Siever 2008;Coccaro et al 2011;Blair 2016), comprising the amygdala, hypothalamus, periaqueductal gray, cingulate cortex, ventrolateral and medial prefrontal cortex, supplementary motor area, anterior insular cortex and striatum. Notably, other regions like posterior medial cortices are rarely discussed in the aggression literature but a recent large scale structural MRI study (N = 556) showed that the thickness of the precuneus and its contiguous regions were positively correlated with aggressive behavior in girls (Thijssen et al 2015).…”