Neural correlates of antisocial behavior: the victim’s perspective

Abstract

Antisocial and prosocial behaviors represent the two opposite ends of social interactions. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural bases of being exposed to antisocial and prosocial behaviors.A total of 30 subjects underwent MRI during the performance of a social interaction task that depicts antisocial, prosocial, and neutral behaviors. Activation and psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses were performed to identify task-dependent changes in brain activation and connectivity. Personality traits, temperament, and reaction to frustrating events were evaluated.In the antisocial versus control condition, participants presented hyperactivation in the right lingual gyrus and the superior and middle temporal gyrus (STG/MTG). The latter activation showed a positive PPI with the contralateral STG/MTG. In antisocial versus prosocial interaction, participants showed hyperactivation in the medial and superior frontal gyrus (MFG/SFG), the inferior and middle frontal gyrus (IFG/MFG), the putamen and the thalamus. The activation in the SFG showed a PPI with the IFG, insula, cingulate cortex (CC), and putamen. Furthermore, activation in the putamen and thalamus depended on the activity of the CC and the precentral gyrus. Furthermore, activation in the IFG/MFG was related to activity in the SFG. Lastly, the significant clusters that emerged in the activation analysis were correlated with personality traits, temperament subscales, and levels of reaction to frustrations.Antisocial behaviors elicit activation of a cortico-limbic network, which seems to be mediated by individual differences, suggesting that personality traits, but also temperament and different types of approach to frustration, may play an important role in explaining the neural response to antisocial behavior.