title: P3 and provoked aggressive behavior.
abstract: Cognitive and biological processes play a role in human aggression. However, relatively little is known about the neural correlates of cognitive processes in aggressive individuals, particularly as they unfold during an aggressive encounter. We investigated whether the P3 event-related potential (ERP) discriminates aggressive versus nonaggressive individuals during a provocative, aggressive encounter. Forty-eight participants (23 men and 25 women) were classified as aggressive or nonaggressive based on self-reported life history of aggression. Aggressive behavior was assessed using a modification of a well-validated laboratory task during which the participant and a fictitious opponent ostensibly delivered and received noise blasts of low, medium, and high intensity. Provocation was manipulated by altering the level of noise set by the opponent. Aggression was defined as the number of high-intensity noise blasts the participant set for the opponent. As predicted, P3 amplitude in response to provocation differed as a function of aggressive history. Nonaggressive individuals showed enhanced P3 when provoked by the opponent relative to low provocation, but this effect was absent in aggressive individuals. The results suggest that aggressive individuals engage fewer neural processing resources in response to provoking social cues, which may reflect aberrant cognitive and emotional processes.
authors.affiliation: a Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Pritzker School of Medicine , Division of Biological Sciences, The University of Chicago , Chicago , IL , USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Fanning
authors.forename: Mitchell E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Berman
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Long
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300 / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult