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Meta-Analysis
. 2014 Aug;9(8):1223-31.
doi: 10.1093/scan/nst104. Epub 2013 Aug 6.

Neural bases of antisocial behavior: a voxel-based meta-analysis

Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Neural bases of antisocial behavior: a voxel-based meta-analysis

Yuta Aoki et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2014 Aug.

Abstract

Individuals with antisocial behavior place a great physical and economic burden on society. Deficits in emotional processing have been recognized as a fundamental cause of antisocial behavior. Emerging evidence also highlights a significant contribution of attention allocation deficits to such behavior. A comprehensive literature search identified 12 studies that were eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis, which compared 291 individuals with antisocial problems and 247 controls. Signed Differential Mapping revealed that compared with controls, gray matter volume (GMV) in subjects with antisocial behavior was reduced in the right lentiform nucleus (P < 0.0001), left insula (P = 0.0002) and left frontopolar cortex (FPC) (P = 0.0006), and was increased in the right fusiform gyrus (P < 0.0001), right inferior parietal lobule (P = 0.0003), right superior parietal lobule (P = 0.0004), right cingulate gyrus (P = 0.0004) and the right postcentral gyrus (P = 0.0004). Given the well-known contributions of limbic and paralimbic areas to emotional processing, the observed reductions in GMV in these regions might represent neural correlates of disturbance in emotional processing underlying antisocial behavior. Previous studies have suggested an FPC role in attention allocation during emotional processing. Therefore, GMV deviations in this area may constitute a neural basis of deficits in attention allocation linked with antisocial behavior.

Keywords: Brodmann area (BA) 9; antisocial personality disorder; conduct disorder; frontal pole; psychopathy.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Process of study selection.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Regions of decreases (blue) or increases (red) in regional gray matter volume in individuals with antisocial behavior, compared with controls voxel threshold P <0.001. (a) Left frontopolar cortex; (b) left insula; (c) lentiform nucleus; (d) right fusiform.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Regions of decreases (blue) or increases (red) in regional gray matter volume in individuals with antisocial behavior, compared with controls voxel threshold P <0.001. (a) Right inferior parietal lobule; (b) left superior parietal lobule; (c) right cingulate gyurs; (d) right postcentral gyrus.

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Publication types