Violence inhibition mechanism functioning mediates the relationship between dietary eicosapentaenoic acid intake and physical aggression

Deficiency in long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, in particular eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), is implicated in aggression and callous-unemotional (CU) traits. A violence inhibition mechanism (VIM) has been proposed to regulate aggression through responding to expressions of distress. However, it remains unclear whether EPA intake is related to the VIM, and if so, whether this pathway can mediate relationships between EPA intake and deviant personality traits. The current investigation documents two, independently-sampled studies that tested relationships between EPA intake, personality (aggression, CU traits), and electrophysiological indices of the VIM (motor extinction cued by facial expressions of distress). In study one, 98 participants completed a food-frequency questionnaire, the inventory of callous-unemotional traits, and an aggression questionnaire. EPA intake was negatively correlated with physical aggression, even after controlling for age and sex. In study two, 47 participants completed the same measures in addition to having electroencephalography recorded during a novel paradigm assessing the distinct processing stages of the VIM. Stop-P300 (motor extinction) responses to facial expressions of distress mediated the relationship between EPA intake and physical aggression. For the first time, we have evidenced an association between EPA intake and indices of distress-induced motor extinction proficiency. Findings are in line with a proposed role of EPA in regulating aggression, possibly through associations with networks involved in distress-cued executive control over behaviour. Results are discussed in terms of the potential benefit of nutritional supplementation in clinical and forensic arenas. Data and a pre-print of this manuscript are available here: https://osf.io/u3jdc/?view_only=b7f32cd1798344b5a6dffa2892253392

Don't slap the fish: The relationship between dietary Omega-3 intake and physical aggression is mediated by motor inhibition in response to distressed faces

10.31234/osf.io/pbg2v ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Dean Fido ◽

Nadja Heym ◽

Claire Bloxsom ◽

Kirsty Hunter ◽

Michael Gregson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Aggression ◽

P300 Amplitude ◽

Inhibition Mechanism ◽

Motor Inhibition ◽

Omega 3 ◽

Omega 3 Fatty Acid ◽

Cu Traits ◽

Callous Unemotional ◽

The innate violence inhibition mechanism (VIM) purportedly regulates maladaptive aggressive behavior through motor inhibition, in response to expressions of distress, and is implicated in psychopathy-related aggression. Deficiency in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; an omega-3 fatty acid) is implicated in aggression and callous-unemotional (CU) traits, however, its relationship to the VIM remains unknown. Two studies tested relationships between EPA intake, personality (aggression, CU traits), and electrophysiological indices of the VIM. In study one (N=98), participants completed omega-3 intake (FFQ), CU traits (ICU), and aggression (BPAQ) measures. Physical aggression correlated positively with callousness and negatively with EPA intake. CU traits were unrelated to EPA. In study two (N=47), participants completed the same measures and an electroencephalography assessment of VIM. Stop-P300 amplitude (motor inhibition success) in response to facial expressions of distress mediated the relationship between EPA intake and physical aggression. This is the first demonstration of an association between EPA intake and electroencephalographic indices of the VIM. Findings support a role of EPA in regulating aggression through networks involved in distress-cued executive control over behaviour; and provide supporting data to direct future trial designs for nutritional supplementation in non-clinical, clinical and forensic arenas.

In the eyes of the beholder: investigating the effect of visual probing on accuracy and gaze fixations when attending to facial expressions among primary and secondary callous-unemotional variants

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry ◽

10.1007/s00787-019-01452-z ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (10) ◽

pp. 1441-1451 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Melina Nicole Kyranides ◽

Kostas A. Fanti ◽

Maria Petridou ◽

Eva R. Kimonis

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Eye Gaze ◽

Repeated Measurements ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Cu Traits ◽

Callous Unemotional ◽

The Face ◽

Gaze Fixations

AbstractIndividuals with callous-unemotional (CU) traits show deficits in facial emotion recognition. According to preliminary research, this impairment may be due to attentional neglect to peoples’ eyes when evaluating emotionally expressive faces. However, it is unknown whether this atypical processing pattern is unique to established variants of CU traits or modifiable with intervention. This study examined facial affect recognition and gaze patterns among individuals (N = 80; M age = 19.95, SD = 1.01 years; 50% female) with primary vs secondary CU variants. These groups were identified based on repeated measurements of conduct problems, CU traits, and anxiety assessed in adolescence and adulthood. Accuracy and number of fixations on areas of interest (forehead, eyes, and mouth) while viewing six dynamic emotions were assessed. A visual probe was used to direct attention to various parts of the face. Individuals with primary and secondary CU traits were less accurate than controls in recognizing facial expressions across all emotions. Those identified in the low-anxious primary-CU group showed reduced overall fixations to fearful and painful facial expressions compared to those in the high-anxious secondary-CU group. This difference was not specific to a region of the face (i.e. eyes or mouth). Findings point to the importance of investigating both accuracy and eye gaze fixations, since individuals in the primary and secondary groups were only differentiated in the way they attended to specific facial expression. These findings have implications for differentiated interventions focused on improving facial emotion recognition with regard to attending and correctly identifying emotions.

Are impairments in emotion recognition a core feature of callous–unemotional traits? Testing the primary versus secondary variants model in children

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579417000475 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 67-77 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Mark R. Dadds ◽

Eva R. Kimonis ◽

Olivia Schollar-Root ◽

Caroline Moul ◽

David J. Hawes

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Behavioral Problems ◽

Self Report ◽

High Anxiety ◽

Cu Traits ◽

Callous Unemotional ◽

History Of ◽

Anxiety Levels ◽

Secondary Variants ◽

AbstractThe role of environmental adversity in the development of high callous–unemotional (CU) traits in children is controversial. Evidence speaks to the traits being largely independent of adversity; however, recent data shows that those with high CU traits and high adversity and/or high anxiety might differ in important ways from those with no such history. We tested this using emotion recognition (ER) skills. We tested whether maltreatment history and anxiety levels moderated the relationship between level of CU traits and ER skills in N = 364 children with behavioral problems who were 3 to 16 years old. As hypothesised, in the full sample, the relationship between CU traits and ER differed according to maltreatment history, such that CU traits were associated with poorer recognition for those with zero or negligible history of maltreatment. This moderation of the CU-ER relationship by maltreatment was inconsistent across subgroups, however, and for the cohort utilizing youth self-report of maltreatment, high CU traits were associated with poor ER in those with lower anxiety levels. Maltreatment history and/or anxiety levels can identify different emotional impairments associated with high CU traits, and the impairments might be characteristic of “primary” high CU traits defined as occurring independently of maltreatment and/or high anxiety.

An Investigation of a Relationship between Aggression and Wellbeing among Adolescents

Asian Review of Social Sciences ◽

10.51983/arss-2018.7.3.1462 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 86-93

Author(s):

Harshmeet Kaur

Keyword(s):

Physical Aggression ◽

Inverse Relationship ◽

Satisfaction With Life ◽

Self Report ◽

Satisfaction With Life Scale ◽

Psychological Wellbeing ◽

Life Scale ◽

Males And Females ◽

The study investigated the relationship between aggression and wellbeing among adolescents. A sample of 250 adolescents equally divided among males and females aged 16-18 years were taken. Various self-report measures were administered, for example, aggression questionnaire by Buss and Perry (1992), satisfaction with life scale by Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin (1985), positive affect and negative affect acale by Watson, Clark, and Tellegen (1988), and psychological wellbeing scale by Ryff and Keyes (1995). Means and Standard deviations, t-ratios and Correlation Analysis were carried out. Findings indicated significant and inverse relationship between aggression and wellbeing. Significant gender differences emerged in physical aggression where males scored higher as compared to females.

Positive and negative parenting in conduct disorder with high versus low levels of callous–unemotional traits

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579420000279 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-12

Author(s):

Ruth Pauli ◽

Peter Tino ◽

Jack C. Rogers ◽

Rosalind Baker ◽

Roberta Clanton ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Conduct Disorder ◽

Positive Parenting ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Negative Parenting ◽

Cu Traits ◽

Callous Unemotional ◽

Learning Classifier ◽

Callous Unemotional Traits ◽

Generalized Matrix ◽

Abstract Less is known about the relationship between conduct disorder (CD), callous–unemotional (CU) traits, and positive and negative parenting in youth compared to early childhood. We combined traditional univariate analyses with a novel machine learning classifier (Angle-based Generalized Matrix Learning Vector Quantization) to classify youth (N = 756; 9–18 years) into typically developing (TD) or CD groups with or without elevated CU traits (CD/HCU, CD/LCU, respectively) using youth- and parent-reports of parenting behavior. At the group level, both CD/HCU and CD/LCU were associated with high negative and low positive parenting relative to TD. However, only positive parenting differed between the CD/HCU and CD/LCU groups. In classification analyses, performance was best when distinguishing CD/HCU from TD groups and poorest when distinguishing CD/HCU from CD/LCU groups. Positive and negative parenting were both relevant when distinguishing CD/HCU from TD, negative parenting was most relevant when distinguishing between CD/LCU and TD, and positive parenting was most relevant when distinguishing CD/HCU from CD/LCU groups. These findings suggest that while positive parenting distinguishes between CD/HCU and CD/LCU, negative parenting is associated with both CD subtypes. These results highlight the importance of considering multiple parenting behaviors in CD with varying levels of CU traits in late childhood/adolescence.

Dark triad of personality and aggression in adolescents and young people

10.47040/sd/sdpsych.v10i2.97 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 102-113

Author(s):

Constantin Gogoriță

Keyword(s):

Personality Traits ◽

Physical Aggression ◽

Criminal Behavior ◽

Delinquent Behavior ◽

Verbal Aggression ◽

Dark Triad ◽

Key Factor ◽

The Relationship ◽

Practical Implications

The present study aims to analyze the relationships between dark triad of personality and aggression in adolescents. Aggression is considered the key factor in the development of criminal behavior, and by deciphering the factors that determine aggression, interventions can be made to prevent and diminish delinquent behavior. In this study, 134 persons between 15 and 28 years old participated, M = 20.48, AS = 2.50, of whom 34 were males and 79 were females. The instruments used to assess the dark personality traits and aggression were The Aggression Questionnaire, BPAQ (α = .89) and Short Dark Triad, SD-3 (α = .79). The results showed that boys have higher levels of physical aggression than girls, while girls have higher levels of anger and hostility than boys. In addition, psychopathy was positively associated with physical aggression, verbal aggression, and anger, Machiavelianism was positively associated with hostility, and narcissism was negatively associated with hostility. Age moderates to some extent the relationship between dark personality traits and physical aggression. Practical implications of these results are disscused.

Mapping neural activity patterns to contextualized fearful facial expressions onto callous-unemotional (CU) traits: intersubject representational similarity analysis reveals less variation among high-CU adolescents

Personality Neuroscience ◽

10.1017/pen.2020.13 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Shawn A. Rhoads ◽

Elise M. Cardinale ◽

Katherine O’Connell ◽

Amy L. Palmer ◽

John W. VanMeter ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Facial Expressions ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Neural Response ◽

Similarity Analysis ◽

Response Patterns ◽

Representational Similarity Analysis ◽

Cu Traits ◽

Fearful Faces ◽

Callous Unemotional

Abstract Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are early-emerging personality features characterized by deficits in empathy, concern for others, and remorse following social transgressions. One of the interpersonal deficits most consistently associated with CU traits is impaired behavioral and neurophysiological responsiveness to fearful facial expressions. However, the facial expression paradigms traditionally employed in neuroimaging are often ambiguous with respect to the nature of threat (i.e., is the perceiver the threat, or is something else in the environment?). In the present study, 30 adolescents with varying CU traits viewed fearful facial expressions cued to three different contexts (“afraid for you,” “afraid of you,” “afraid for self”) while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Univariate analyses found that mean right amygdala activity during the “afraid for self” context was negatively associated with CU traits. With the goal of disentangling idiosyncratic stimulus-driven neural responses, we employed intersubject representational similarity analysis to link intersubject similarities in multivoxel neural response patterns to contextualized fearful expressions with differential intersubject models of CU traits. Among low-CU adolescents, neural response patterns while viewing fearful faces were most consistently similar early in the visual processing stream and among regions implicated in affective responding, but were more idiosyncratic as emotional face information moved up the cortical processing hierarchy. By contrast, high-CU adolescents’ neural response patterns consistently aligned along the entire cortical hierarchy (but diverged among low-CU youths). Observed patterns varied across contexts, suggesting that interpretations of fearful expressions depend to an extent on neural response patterns and are further shaped by levels of CU traits.

Callous-Unemotional Traits Moderate the Relationship Between Irritability and Threatening Responding

Frontiers in Psychiatry ◽

10.3389/fpsyt.2021.617052 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Ru Zhang ◽

Johannah Bashford-Largo ◽

Jennie Lukoff ◽

Jaimie Elowsky ◽

Erin Carollo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Two Dimensions ◽

Bold Response ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Cu Traits ◽

Callous Unemotional ◽

Lingual Gyrus ◽

Callous Unemotional Traits ◽

Threat Processing ◽

Human Faces ◽

Background: Irritability and callous-unemotional (CU; reduced guilt/empathy) traits vary dimensionally in the typically developing population but may be particularly marked in youth with conduct disorder (CD). While these dimensional traits are positively correlated, they have been associated with divergent forms of dysfunction, particularly with respect to threat processing (i.e., irritability with increased, and CU traits with decreased, threat responsiveness). This suggests that interactions between these two dimensions may be complex at the neurobiological level. However, this issue has received minimal empirical attention.Methods: The study included 105 adolescents (typically developing and cases with CD; N = 59). They were scanned with fMRI during a looming threat task that involved images of threatening and neutral human faces or animals that appeared to be either looming or receding.Results: Significant irritability-by-CU traits-by-Direction-by-Emotion interactions were seen within right thalamus/PAG, left lingual gyrus and right fusiform gyrus; irritability was positively associated with the BOLD response for Looming Threatening vs. Receding Threatening trials, particularly for youth with low CU traits. In contrast, CU traits were negatively associated with the same differential BOLD response but particularly for youth showing higher levels of irritability. Similar findings were seen within left ventral anterior and posterior cingulate cortices, though the addition of the interaction with CU traits was only seen at slightly more lenient thresholds.Conclusions: The results support previous work linking irritability to increased, and CU traits to reduced, threat responsiveness. However, for adolescents with high irritability, if CU traits are also high, the underlying neuropathology appears to relate to reduced, rather than increased, threat responsiveness.

Dark triad of personality and aggression in adolescents and young people

10.47040/sd0000075 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 102-113

Author(s):

Constantin Gogoriță

Keyword(s):

Personality Traits ◽

Physical Aggression ◽

Criminal Behavior ◽

Delinquent Behavior ◽

Verbal Aggression ◽

Dark Triad ◽

Key Factor ◽

The Relationship ◽

Practical Implications

Childhood Maltreatment and Adolescent Cyberbullying Perpetration: A Moderated Mediation Model of Callous—Unemotional Traits and Perceived Social Support

Journal of Interpersonal Violence ◽

10.1177/0886260520960106 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 088626052096010

Author(s):

Jie Fang ◽

Wei Wang ◽

Gao ◽

Jiping Yang ◽

Xingchao Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Childhood Maltreatment ◽

Perceived Social Support ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Cu Traits ◽

Moderated Mediation Model ◽

Callous Unemotional ◽

Callous Unemotional Traits ◽

Although childhood maltreatment has been shown to play an important role in adolescent cyberbullying perpetration, little is known about mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relationship. The current study investigated the mediating role of callous-unemotional (CU) traits in the association between childhood maltreatment and adolescent cyberbullying perpetration, as well as the moderating role of perceived social support. A total of 2,407 Chinese adolescents (aged 11–16 years, Mage = 12.75 years, SD = 0.58) completed the measures of childhood maltreatment, CU traits, cyberbullying perpetration, and perceived social support. The results showed that CU traits partially mediated the relationship between childhood maltreatment and adolescent cyberbullying perpetration. Furthermore, perceived social support moderated the relationship between childhood maltreatment and CU traits, as well as CU traits and cyberbullying perpetration. Specifically, childhood maltreatment had a greater impact on CU traits for adolescents with higher levels of perceived social support and the predictive function of CU traits on cyberbullying perpetration was stronger for adolescents with low levels of perceived social support.