Neurobiological correlates of antisociality across adolescence and young adulthood: a multi-sample, multi-method study

Abstract

Background: Antisociality across adolescence and young adulthood puts individuals at high risk of developing a variety of problems. Prior research has linked antisociality to autonomic nervous system and endocrinological functioning. However, there is large heterogeneity in antisocial behaviors, and these neurobiological measures are rarely studied conjointly, limited to small specific studies with narrow age ranges, and yield mixed findings due to the type of behavior examined.

Methods: We harmonized data from 1489 participants (9-27 years, 67% male), from six heterogeneous samples. In the resulting dataset, we tested relations between distinct dimensions of antisociality and heart rate, pre-ejection period (PEP), respiratory sinus arrhythmia, respiration rate, skin conductance levels, testosterone, basal cortisol, and the cortisol awakening response (CAR), and test the role of age throughout adolescence and young adulthood.

Results: Three dimensions of antisociality were uncovered: 'callous-unemotional (CU)/manipulative traits', 'intentional aggression/conduct', and 'reactivity/impulsivity/irritability'. Shorter PEPs and higher testosterone were related to CU/manipulative traits, and a higher CAR is related to both CU/manipulative traits and intentional aggression/conduct. These effects were stable across age.

Conclusions: Across a heterogeneous sample and consistent across development, the CAR may be a valuable measure to link to CU/manipulative traits and intentional aggression, while sympathetic arousal and testosterone are additionally valuable to understand CU/manipulative traits. Together, these findings deepen our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms underlying different components of antisociality. Finally, we illustrate the potential of using current statistical techniques for combining multiple datasets to draw robust conclusions about biobehavioral associations.

Keywords: Adolescence and young adulthood; antisocial; autonomic nervous system; cortisol; heterogeneity; hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis; testosterone.

Fig. 1.

(a)–(l) Observed data of the behavioral dimensions of antisociality across age, before multiple imputations, for CU/manipulative traits, intentional aggression/conduct, and reactivity/irritability/impulsivity, and the neurobiological measures. The different colors indicate the different samples. The data show considerable heterogeneity. (m)–(x) Results of the general linear models with clustered bootstraps for the models testing age (linear and quadratic) and sex effects across 100 imputed datasets, for CU-traits/manipulative aggression, intentional aggression/conduct, and reactivity/irritability/impulsivity and the neurobiological measures. The blue line represents males and the red line represents females. Note that the age overlap for girls and boys is limited to 13–18 years, therefore the developmental patterns can only be compared with caution. HR, heart rate; PEP, pre-ejection period; RSA, log-transformed respiratory sinus arrhythmia RR, respiration rate; SCL, skin conductance level; CAR AUCg, cortisol awakening response area under the curve with respect to the ground; CAR AUCi, cortisol awakening response, area under the curve with respect to the increase.

Fig. 2.

Results of the general linear models with clustered bootstraps for the biobehavioral models. Displayed are significant associations between dimensions of antisociality and neurobiological measures. PEP, pre-ejection period; RR, respiration rate; CAR AUCi, cortisol awakening response, area under the curve with respect to the increase (i.e. cortisol awakening reactivity).