Citation

Meyer-Lindenberg A, Buckholtz JW, Kolachana B, Hariri AR, Pezawas L, Blasi G, Wabnitz A, Honea R, Verchinski B, Callicott JH, Egan M, Mattay V, Weinberger DR. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2006; 103(16): 6269-6274.

Affiliation

Unit for Systems Neuroscience in Psychiatry, Neuroimaging Core Facility, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892-1365, USA. andreasml@nih.gov

Comment In:

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2006;103(16):6085-6

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, National Academy of Sciences)

DOI

10.1073/pnas.0511311103

PMID

16569698

PMCID

PMC1458867

Abstract

Neurobiological factors contributing to violence in humans remain poorly understood. One approach to this question is examining allelic variation in the X-linked monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene, previously associated with impulsive aggression in animals and humans. Here, we have studied the impact of a common functional polymorphism in MAOA on brain structure and function assessed with MRI in a large sample of healthy human volunteers. We show that the low expression variant, associated with increased risk of violent behavior, predicted pronounced limbic volume reductions and hyperresponsive amygdala during emotional arousal, with diminished reactivity of regulatory prefrontal regions, compared with the high expression allele. In men, the low expression allele is also associated with changes in orbitofrontal volume, amygdala and hippocampus hyperreactivity during aversive recall, and impaired cingulate activation during cognitive inhibition. Our data identify differences in limbic circuitry for emotion regulation and cognitive control that may be involved in the association of MAOA with impulsive aggression, suggest neural systems-level effects of X-inactivation in human brain, and point toward potential targets for a biological approach toward violence.

Language: en