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Industry: Email Alert RSS FeedBiosocial studies of antisocial and violent behavior in children and adults: a review - 1
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, August, 2002 by Adrian Raine
In contrast to arousal deficits, explanations of reduced orienting activity have centered on attentional and prefrontal dysfunction theory. Raine and Venables (1984a) proposed an attention deficit hypothesis in which it was argued that antisocial individuals were characterized by a fundamental deficit in the ability to allocate attentional resources to environmental events. In discussing this perspective, Fowles (1993) alternatively suggested that there may be two attentional deficits in antisocial individuals, one deficit with respect to attending to neutral stimuli, and other deficit with respect to the anticipation of aversive events.
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Reduced skin conductance orienting has also been interpreted with respect to a prefrontal dysfunction hypothesis of antisocial behavior (Raine, 1997). Briefly, this perspective argues that damage to the prefrontal region of the brain leads to psychophysiological abnormalities (reduced orienting and arousal) that predispose to traits and characteristics (e.g., stimulation-seeking, disinhibition, attention deficits), which in turn predispose to antisocial behavior. Support for this model stems from research showing that the prefrontal cortex is involved in the generation of skin conductance orienting responses (Damasio, Tranel, & Damasio, 1990; Williams et al., 2000) and is also involved in arousal regulation and stress responsivity (see Raine, 1997 for further details). Reduced autonomic arousal is in turn associated with increased stimulation-seeking (Gatzke, Raine, Loeber, Steinhauer, & Stouthamer-Loeber, 2002), fearlessness (Raine, 1993), and disinhibition (Fowles et al., 2000; Scarpa, Raine, Venables, & Me dnick, 1997a), traits that in turn have been associated with antisocial behavior (Raine, Reynolds, et al., 1998).
OBSTETRIC FACTORS
Of all the subfields of biological research on antisocial behavior, obstetric influences show the most compelling evidence for biosocial interactions, with at least 11 studies from five different countries finding evidence for statistical interactions. These obstetric studies fall into three domains: minor physical anomalies, prenatal nicotine exposure, and birth complications.
Pregnancy Complications
Minor Physical Anomalies (MPAs)
At least six studies have found an association between increased MPAs and increased antisocial behavior in children (Raine, 1993). Minor physical anomalies have been associated with disorders of pregnancy and are thought to be a marker for fetal neural maldevelopment toward the end of the first 3 months of pregnancy. As such, they may be viewed as an indirect marker of abnormal brain development. MPAs are relatively minor physical abnormalities consisting of such features as low-seated ears, adherent ear lobes, and a furrowed tongue. Although MPAs may have a genetic basis, they may also be caused by environmental factors acting on the fetus such as anoxia, bleeding, and infection (Guy, Majorski, Wallace, & Guy, 1983).
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