TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2006//
TI  - Neural mechanisms of genetic risk for impulsivity and violence in humans
JO  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
A1  - Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas
A1  - Buckholtz, Joshua W.
A1  - Kolachana, Bhaskar
A1  - Hariri, Ahmad R.
A1  - Pezawas, Lukas
A1  - Blasi, Giuseppe
A1  - Wabnitz, Ashley
A1  - Honea, Robyn
A1  - Verchinski, Beth
A1  - Callicott, Joseph H.
A1  - Egan, Mary
A1  - Mattay, Venkata
A1  - Weinberger, D. R.
SP  - 6269
EP  - 6274
VL  - 103
IS  - 16
N2  - 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.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0027-8424
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0511311103
ID  - ref1
ER  -