Neuropsychological and cognitive psychophysiological substrates of impulsive aggression

• Published in: Biological psychiatry (1969) Vol. 41; no. 10; pp. 1045 - 1061
• Main Authors: Barratt, Ernest S., Stanford, Matthew S., Kent, Thomas A., Alan, Felthous
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 15.05.1997; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aggression - physiology; antisocial personality disorder; Antisocial Personality Disorder - physiopathology; Antisocial Personality Disorder - psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain Mapping; Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology; Cognition Disorders - physiopathology; Cognition Disorders - psychology; Crime - psychology; Dominance, Cerebral - physiology; Event-Related Potentials, P300 - physiology; Humans; Impulsive Aggression; Impulsive Behavior - physiopathology; Impulsive Behavior - psychology; Individuality; Male; Medical sciences; Neuropsychological Tests; P300 ERPs; Personality Assessment; prisoners; Prisoners - psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reaction Time - physiology; Social behavior disorders. Criminal behavior. Delinquency; verbal deficits; Impulsive Aggression; P300 ERPs; verbal deficits; prisoners; antisocial personality disorder; Human; Impulsivity; Acoustic stimulus; Antisocial personality; Delinquency; Neuropsychological test; Psychometrics; Event evoked potential; Social behavior disorder; Personality disorder; Aggressiveness
• ISSN: 0006-3223; 1873-2402
• DOI: 10.1016/S0006-3223(96)00175-8

The purpose of this study was to test whether subjects who commit impulsive vs non-impulsive aggression differ on measurements of personality, neuropsychology, and cognitive psychophysiology, and whether these differences can yield information regarding the etiology of impulsive aggression. Subjects were two groups of prison inmates, distinguished by their committal of impulsive or nonimpulsive aggression, and matched noninmate controls. All inmates met DSM III-R criteria for an antisocial personality disorder but for no other disorder. Impulsiveness, anger, and peak P300 latencies did not differ between the inmate groups, but verbal symbol decoding and peak P300 amplitudes did. Impulsiveness and verbal skills were inversely correlated. Impulsiveness was inversely correlated with, and verbal skills positively correlated with P300 amplitudes. The results indicate that aggression is not homogenous, even among antisocial persons, and that impulsive aggression is related to neuropsychological and cognitive psychophysiological measures of information processing beyond those factors related to criminality alone.