Neuroscientists have studied the brains of people showing aggression towards partners
In September 2021, it became known about the death of 22-year-old video blogger Gabby Petisho. Before that, she traveled with her fiance for several months, but the relationship between the young couple did not go well – the conflicts were so fierce that witnesses even called the police. At the end of August, the girl stopped communicating with her relatives, and soon the police found her corpse. The killer has not yet been found, but the main suspect is her fiancé Brian Londry, who at first refused to communicate with the police, and then disappeared altogether.
Scientists have been studying the phenomenon of violence in couples for a long time. A lot is already known about the psychological and sociological factors of such behavior, but there is little information about what happens in the brain of the aggressor.
Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University recruited 51 heterosexual couples to monitor their partners' brains in real time. Scientists described the results in an article in the journal Biological Psychology.
The scientists explained to the volunteers that they would need to play a special computer game against their partner, close friend or stranger. They and the opponent will be wearing headphones. Everyone will have to choose the volume level of the noise that will be heard in the opponent's headphones in case of a loss. Then, after a few seconds, a red square will appear on a blank screen, and then, in order to win, you will need to press the button as soon as possible. After that, the participants will see what level of noise the opponent has set for them, and then whether they won or lost. At the end, in case of loss, there will be noise in the headphones.
In reality, there were no opponents – their role was played by the program. But the members thought they were competing with real people.
In total, each volunteer played 48 rounds against different opponents. At this time, scientists using fMRI monitored the activity of his brain.
“Basically, we gave participants repeated opportunities to hurt each of these three people, and we looked at how brain activity changed depending on who they thought they were hurting,” says Professor David Chester, lead author research. “But no one really got hurt by this game, the participants were playing against the computer.”
In addition, the researchers asked participants to fill out a questionnaire in which they reported whether they had committed violence against their partner prior to the study.
Analysis of fMRI has shown that aggression towards partners is associated with abnormalities in the activity of the medial prefrontal cortex, which performs many functions, including playing a role in understanding how close and valuable a certain person is to us.
“We found that aggression towards partners has unique characteristics of brain activity,” says Chester. “When people make decisions about harming their loved ones, something special happens at the neural level, and this process is very different from decisions about harming friends or strangers. “
The researchers found that participants whose medial cortex activity was dulled were more likely to show aggression towards their partners in real life.
“We expected to see that partner aggression is associated with unique brain activity,” adds Chester. “What surprised us was the ability to predict actual partner violence from this activity.”
Also, scientists drew attention to how the neural activity of men and women affects the manifestations of aggression towards each other. It turned out that the level of female aggression depended on the aggression shown towards a woman by a man, while men did not depend on women in this regard.
“This finding is consistent with the well-known finding that women tend to be aggressive towards partners primarily in self-defense,” says Chester.
In general, the results of the study made it possible to identify areas of the brain associated with aggression against a partner, the scientists conclude. These data will be useful both for building a detailed model of the brain of the aggressors and for finding targets for interventions aimed at reducing partner aggression.
“Why do people hurt loved ones? – the researchers write. – The answer to this question is urgent. Our results show that aggression arises from a complex and dynamic pattern of activity in the midline of the cerebral cortex during provocation and aggression and affects both the aggressor. The psychological processes reflected in this array of neural activity remain unclear, but the established role of these brain regions in understanding the intimacy and value of a partner suggests that exploring these areas in the future is very important. We hope that future work will allow the use of these mechanisms of harm reduction and establishment of peaceful relations between partners “.
In the future, it is also necessary to study the peculiarities of the brain during the manifestation of aggression in people with a different gender identity and sexual orientation, the authors add.
