Table 6.
Proactive aggression neuroimaging findings according to year of publication.
| Study | Year | n | Age | Sex | Region | PA Instrument |
Brain Region/ Structure |
Modality | Findings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raine et al. [102] | 1998 | 65 | 33 | M | North America | Offending record | Prefrontal, subcortical |
PET | Predatory and affective murderers showed increased right subcortical glucose metabolism, compared to the non-offender control group. |
| Bobes et al. [103] | 2013 | 54 | 29 | M | North America | RPQ | Amygdala | sMRI fMRI |
PA was negatively associated with right amygdala volume. |
| White et al. [104] | 2013 | 59 | 14 | M/F | North America | TRI | CSP | sMRI | PA was unrelated to CSP size. |
| Lozier et al. [105] | 2014 | 46 | 14 | M/F | North America | RPQ | Amygdala | fMRI | Right amygdala responses to fearful expressions negatively predicted PA in youths with high callous and unemotional traits. |
| Pardini et al. [106] | 2014 | 56 | 26 | M | North America | RPQ | Amygdala | sMRI | Low amygdala volumes were longitudinally associated with the development of PA starting in childhood. |
| Kuroki et al. [12] | 2017 | 57 | 40 | M | Asia | Offending record | Insula, planum polare, precueus | sMRI | Lower brain volumes were linked to a history of premediated violent acts among males with schizophrenia. This association may be related to psychotic symptomatology and not PA. |
| Yang et al. [107] | 2017 | 106 | 14 | M/F | North America | RPQ | ACC | sMRI | Left ACC volume was negatively associated with PA. |
| Farah et al. [108] | 2018 | 156 | 35 | M | North America | RPQ | Amygdala, ACC, insula | sMRI | PA was positively associated with right amygdala and left ACC volumes but unrelated to insular volume. |
| Kolla et al. [13] | 2018 | 40 | 35 | M | North America | RPQ | Precuneus, angular gyrus | fMRI | PA was negatively correlated with connectivity between the precuneus and angular gyrus among MAOA-L subjects. Both regions are nodes of the default mode network. |
| Craig et al. [109] | 2019 | 233 | 13 | M/F | Europe | RPQ | Left dorsal striatum | MRS | Glutamate concentration in the left dorsal striatum was inversely related to PA. |
| Siep et al. [110] | 2019 | 36 | 36 | M | Europe | RPQ | MPFC, STS | fMRI | PA was positively associated with connectivity in the MPFC and negatively with BOLD activity of the STS. |
| Zhu et al. [111] | 2019 | 155 | 20 | M/F | Asia | RPQ | Bilateral DLPFC, PCC, bilateral IPL, MPFC/ACC, precuneus |
sMRI fMRI |
PA was positively linked to GMD in bilateral DLPFC and negatively to GMD in the PCC. PA was negatively related to DLPFC and bilateral IPL connectivity as well as connectivity between PCC and other structures, such as MPFC/ACC, bilateral IPL, and precuneus. |
| Naaijen et al. [112] | 2020 | 254 | 13 | M/F | Europe | RPQ | Insula | sMRI | PA was negatively associated with amygdala volume. |
| Werhahn et al. [113] | 2020 | 207 | 13 | M/F | Europe | RPQ | Amygdala, precuneus |
fMRI | PA was positively related to connectivity between the amygdala and precuneus. |
RPQ, Reactive–Proactive Aggression Questionnaire [11]; TRI, Teacher Report Instrument [4]; CSP, cavum septum pellucidum; ACC, anterior cingulate cortex; MPFC, medial prefrontal cortex; STS, superior temporal sulcus; BOLD, blood oxygenation level-dependent; DLPFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; PCC, posterior cingulate cortex; IPL, inferior parietal lobe; GMD, grey matter density.