Citation

Klein M, Fernàndez-Castillo N. Front. Psychiatry 2021; 12: 643747.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Frontiers Media)

DOI

10.3389/fpsyt.2021.643747

PMID

33762982

Abstract

Aggression is a behavior with evolutionary origins as a heritable trait essential for survival and fitness. However, in today's society it is often both destructive and maladaptive, as context-inappropriate aggression can cause harm to society, families, and individuals. Aggression may be defined as hostile behavior with the intention of inflicting damage or harm, but it is a behaviorally and etiologically complex phenomenon, including traits such as rule breaking, violence, delinquency, and criminality. The heritability of human aggression has been estimated at around 50% and its complex genetic architecture interacts with environmental factors. Such a multifactorial phenotype calls for novel and innovative methodological approaches but also for new hypotheses about underlying biological mechanisms. The diverse contributions to this Research Topic reflect various approaches and opinions in the field of aggression (epi)genetics and could be understood as innovative responses to the challenges in the research on multifactorial phenotypes. This Research Topic focuses on the identification of the underlying mechanisms of aggressive behavior at multiple levels of (epi)genetic, neurobiological and cognitive complexity. By integrating different aspects of epidemiological research, molecular genetics, functional animal models, neurobiological and psychological aspects this Research Topic aims to shed some light on the differential etiological pathways of aggression.

Unraveling the genetic basis of aggressive behavior, so far unclear, would help to understand this complex behavior and its co-occurrence with other disorders or traits. Tielbeek and Boutwell explored the genetic correlations of aggression with health and physiological traits, obtaining no significant findings, which may suggest that these phenotypic associations do not have a genetic cause. In this perspective the authors emphasize the need for larger samples, dissect homogeneous subtypes, and explore causality (Tielbeek and Boutwell). Vaht et al. inspected the association of several variants in the gene RBFOX1, which were previously associated with aggression. Although no significant findings were observed for aggressiveness, some variants were associated with neuroticism, extraversion as well as alcohol use disorder, and propose that future studies should consider personality traits or substance use in aggression (Vaht et al.).

Contextual personality influences aggressive behavior and it is important to elucidate which factors trigger an aggressive response. Weidler et al. used the Taylor Aggressiveness Paradigm (TAP) to clarify the role of physical and non-physical provocation on reactive aggression. They found that provocation is a strong predictor for aggression and that loss and frustration in competition triggers aggression. They also observed that women react less aggressively than males under low provocation and hesitant to punishment, but similar when provocation was prolonged or high...

Language: en

Keywords

genetics; aggression; epigenetics; animal models; biomarkers; EWAS; GWAS; hormones