Program & Abstract Book - EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009
Program & Abstract Book - EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009
Program & Abstract Book - EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009
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<strong>EPFL</strong> <strong>Latsis</strong> <strong>Symposium</strong> <strong>2009</strong>: Understanding Violence<br />
P-46<br />
100<br />
February 11-13 <strong>2009</strong><br />
ge n D e r a n D ag g r e s s i o n: an fmri-st u D y<br />
Strüber, Daniel1 2 ; Roth, Gerhard2 ; Herrmann, Manfred3 4 ;<br />
3 4<br />
Fehr, Thorsten<br />
1 Department of General Psychology, Helmut-Schmidt-University<br />
/ University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, Germany;<br />
2 Brain Research Institute, University of Bremen, Germany; 3 Center<br />
for Cognitive Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology and<br />
Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Bremen, Germany; 4 Center<br />
for Advanced Imaging, Universities of Bremen and Magdeburg,<br />
Germany<br />
It is a well-known fact that men engage in more direct aggression than<br />
women. However, the neural correlates of this gender difference remain<br />
unclear. Here we employed a novel video stimulus inventory (BRAIN–BRemen<br />
Aggression INventory) to examine the affective responses and brain<br />
activations while 11 men and 11 women viewed aggressive and neutral<br />
scenes under natural viewing conditions. Per category, 30 video clips (5-6<br />
seconds duration) were presented in a pseudorandomized order. The behavioural<br />
results showed that the aggressive scenes induced more anger<br />
and less fear in men whereas women rated their emotions as more fearful<br />
and less angry. The fMRI data showed for both males and females activation<br />
patterns in postcentral and inferior parietal regions when watching the<br />
reactive aggressive situations in contrast to neutral ones. Females further<br />
showed occipital and occipital-temporal activations possibly reflecting a<br />
more intense and fear-based analysis of the situation, whereas males<br />
showed a more anterior distribution of activations in temporal and frontal<br />
brain regions. In addition, men only showed bilateral brainstem activations<br />
which might be linked to a more pronounced tendency of attack behaviour.<br />
Basic neural network components related to aggressive behaviour might<br />
be located predominantly in subcortical structures, whereas aggressionrelated<br />
action programs might reflect individual learning histories and,<br />
therefore, be located in group-specific and/or interindividually varying<br />
neocortical networks. These findings demonstrate gender-specific brain<br />
activations during the affective processing of aggressive situations that<br />
may relate to gender differences in direct aggression.