Biobehavioral Approaches to Aggression Implicate Perceived Threat and Insufficient Sleep: Clinical Relevance and Policy Implications

Verona, Edelyn; Bozzay, Melanie L.

doi:10.1177/2372732217719910

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…That is, aggression deserves greater attention in relation to broad‐band symptoms of maladjustment, presumably capturing shared variance across disorders, instead of a sole focus on categorical diagnoses lacking meaningfully‐discrete boundaries (Kotov et al, 2017). In relating these broader dimensions of psychopathology with multiple forms of aggression simultaneously (e.g., Bates et al, 2017), we can shed light on risk factors for the range of aggressive behaviors, in line with both movements toward identifying transdiagnostic processes (e.g., Cuthbert & Insel, 2013) and work highlighting aggression mechanisms in particular (Verona & Bozzay, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Internalizing and externalizing symptoms and aggression and violence in men and women

Mendez

Bozzay²,

Verona

2021

Aggressive Behavior

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Literature linking aggressive behavior across internalizing and externalizing disorders support the co‐occurrence of aggression and various mental health diagnoses. However, research has yet to examine relationships between aggression and dimensional psychopathology models that cut across diagnostic boundaries (e.g., internalizing, externalizing composites) and capture shared liability across common disorders. The role of gender has also been largely ignored in prior work, despite evidence that men and women manifest psychopathology differently. The present study examined cross‐sectional and longitudinal relationships between psychopathology composites (i.e., Internalizing, Externalizing) and different manifestations of physical aggression (i.e., aggressive traits, general violence, physical intimate partner violence, and self‐directed aggression), as well as moderation by gender. Internalizing (INT) and Externalizing (EXT) lifetime symptoms and various physically aggressive behaviors were assessed at baseline and at 6 months and 1 year follow up in a sample of 319 adults with violence and/or substance use histories. Cross‐sectional results showed that INT was associated with all forms of aggression, and women showed stronger relationships between INT and both physical intimate partner violence (IPV) and self‐directed aggression. EXT was specifically linked to general violence, and a stronger relationship between EXT and self‐directed aggression emerged in men compared to women. Longitudinal relationships were mostly small and nonsignificant. Results support the co‐occurrence of aggression with distinct forms of psychopathology, as well as gender‐dependent relationships, but do not support the predictive validity of symptom composites in aggression risk. Findings implicate the need for aggression interventions tailored within gender.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Internalizing and externalizing symptoms and aggression and violence in men and women

Mendez

Bozzay²,

Verona

2021

Aggressive Behavior

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“…We hypothesized that physical aggression would be associated with a higher likelihood of identifying looming (i.e., threatening) faces as angry (Hypothesis 4). Additionally, on the basis of evidence that aggression is associated with hyperreactivity to threat (Coccaro, McCloskey, Fitzgerald, & Phan, 2007; da Cunha-Bang et al, 2017) and impulsive decision-making under threat (Brennan & Baskin-Sommers, 2019; Verona & Bozzay, 2017), we hypothesized that physical aggression would be associated with lower threshold separation (i.e., greater impulsivity) under this condition (Hypothesis 5).…”

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confidence: 99%

Aggressive Realism: More Efficient Processing of Anger in Physically Aggressive Individuals

Brennan

Baskin‐Sommers

2020

Psychol Sci

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Physically aggressive individuals’ heightened tendency to decide that ambiguous faces are angry is thought to contribute to their destructive interpersonal behavior. Although this tendency is commonly attributed to bias, other cognitive processes could account for the emotion-identification patterns observed in physical aggression. Diffusion modeling is a valuable tool for parsing the contributions of several cognitive processes known to influence decision-making, including bias, drift rate (efficiency of information accumulation), and threshold separation (extent of information accumulation). In a sample of 90 incarcerated men, we applied diffusion modeling to an emotion-identification task. Physical aggression was positively associated with drift rate (i.e., more efficient information accumulation) for anger, and drift rate mediated the association between physical aggression and heightened anger identification. Physical aggression was not, however, associated with bias or threshold separation. These findings implicate processing efficiency for anger-related information as a potential mechanism driving aberrant emotion identification in physical aggression.

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“…THREAT, COGNITIVE SYSTEMS, AND AGGRESSION 9 behavior disorders by targeting modifiable factors (Verona & Bozzay, 2017). Toward this end, our study tested the process model of aggression (Verona & Bresin, 2015), relying on well-validated and translational laboratory paradigms to integrate threat manipulations (Schmitz & Grillon, 2012) with the measurement of distinct cognitive systems in Posner's attention network model (Fan et al, 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, chronic irritability and aggressive conduct problems in children and adolescents have been shown to predict major depression and dysthymia 10 to 20 years later (Loth et al, 2014; Rowe et al, 2010; Stringaris et al, 2009). Thus, identifying alterations in emotion and cognition that relate to aggression proneness can help extend current understandings of transdiagnostic processes in psychopathology (see Verona & Bozzay, 2017).…”

Section: Threat Aggression and Distinct Cognitive Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While several frameworks exist to characterize cognitive processes, Posner and colleagues’ (e.g., Posner & Petersen, 1990) attention model differentiates three cognitive systems implemented by separable neural networks. For the purposes of this study, we focus on two of these systems, alerting and executive control systems, to test theoretically derived hypotheses regarding threat and aggressive dispositions (Verona & Bresin, 2015; Verona & Bozzay, 2017). The attentional alerting network in Posner’s model involves vigilance for and processing of novel and survival-linked aspects of the environment, including threat cues (Joëls & Baram, 2009; Hermans et al, 2014).…”

Section: Threat Aggression and Distinct Cognitive Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Threat effects on cognitive systems: Testing links to aggression proneness.

Verona¹,

McDonald²,

Bozzay³

2023

Emotion

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The biobehavioral study of aggression has implications for expanding our understanding of transdiagnostic processes that increase risk for disinhibited behaviors. Toward this end, our study tested tenets from the process model of aggression (Verona & Bresin, 2015). First, we expected that the predictability of threat would differentially alter cognitive networks, including attentional alerting and executive control. Second, we examined the moderating effects of self- and informant reports of aggression on threat-related changes in cognitive functioning. Using event-related potential (ERP) measures of cognitive-attentional processes, 143 community individuals participated in a well-validated and translational threat manipulation (NPU) task (Schmitz & Grillon, 2012) while completing the Attention Network Test (Fan et al., 2002). Analyses revealed that relatively unpredictable threat quickened alerting-related reaction time, whereas predictable threat interfered with processing of flanker task stimuli. The results, however, failed to show reliable relationships between aggression proneness and threat-related cognitive alterations. The findings fit with a broader literature on cognitive and behavioral outputs of threat activation and provide fruitful avenues for better understanding threat-related aggression.

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Biobehavioral Approaches to Aggression Implicate Perceived Threat and Insufficient Sleep: Clinical Relevance and Policy Implications

Cited by 5 publications

References 68 publications

Internalizing and externalizing symptoms and aggression and violence in men and women

Internalizing and externalizing symptoms and aggression and violence in men and women

Aggressive Realism: More Efficient Processing of Anger in Physically Aggressive Individuals

Threat effects on cognitive systems: Testing links to aggression proneness.

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