Reduced right hemisphere activation in severely abused violent offenders during a working memory task: An fMRI study

Abstract

This study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to address two important gaps in our knowledge of brain functioning and violence: (1) What are the brain correlates of adults in the community who have suffered severe physical abuse early in life and who go on to perpetrate serious violence in adulthood? (2) What characterizes those who experience severe physical abuse but who refrain from serious violence? Four groups of participants recruited from the community (controls, severe physical child abuse only, serious violence only, and severely abused, seriously violent offenders) underwent fMRI while performing a visual/verbal working memory task. Violent offenders who had suffered severe child abuse show reduced right hemisphere functioning, particularly in the right temporal cortex. Abused individuals who refrain from serious violence showed relatively lower left, but higher right, activation of the superior temporal gyrus. Abused individuals, irrespective of violence status, showed reduced cortical activation during the working memory task, especially in the left hemisphere. Brain deficits were independent of IQ, history of head injury, task performance, cognitive strategy, and mental activity during the control task. Findings constitute the first fMRI study of brain dysfunction in violent offenders, and indicate that initial right hemisphere dysfunction, when combined with the effects of severe early physical abuse, predisposes to serious violence but that relatively good right hemisphere functioning protects against violence in physically abused children. Aggr. Behav. 27:111-129, 2001.

Brain abnormalities in antisocial individuals: implications for the law

“…Alternatively, Birbaumer and colleagues (2005) revealed that criminal psychopaths showed no significant differential activation in the limbic-prefrontal circuit (amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, insula, and anterior cingulate cortex), which was activated in healthy controls during an aversive conditioning task. Using a visual/ verbal working memory task, Raine et al (2001) showed significant reduced activation in the right hemisphere, particularly in the temporal cortex, in violent offenders with a history of abuse compared with controls. Again, using a working memory task, activation deficits in the left frontal gyrus and anterior cingulate cortex were found in violent APD patients compared with normal controls (Kumari et al, 2006).…”

“…Raine et al (2001) Violent offenders Working memory task. A sequence of familiar objects was presented on the screen and the participants were asked to press a button when a previously seen object was presented.…”

Histories of childhood maltreatment in schizophrenia: Relationships with premorbid functioning, symptomatology, and cognitive deficits

“…A number of investigations have demonstrated associations between childhood maltreatment and poorer cognitive functioning in adulthood, including reduced intellectual and academic functioning (Perez and Widom, 1994), defi cits on tasks of verbal learning and memory (Bremner et al, 1995), working memory (Raine et al, 2001), and executive control (Mezzacappa et al, 2001), impaired eye-tracking (Irwin et al, 1999), and a higher rate of neurological soft signs (Gurvits et al, 2000). Fewer investigations have examined the relationship between maltreatment during childhood and neurocognitive functioning in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.…”

Altered spontaneous activity in antisocial personality disorder revealed by regional homogeneity

“…However, the conclusions on temporal lobe were not consistent. Some studies have reported that temporal lobe functioning was reduced in aggressive patients [23]. However, some studies have reported the opposite conclusion.…”