Heritability of aggression following social evaluation in middle childhood: An fMRI study
Open accessAbstract
Middle childhood marks an important phase for developing and maintaining social relations. At the same time, this phase is marked by a gap in our knowledge of the genetic and environmental influences on brain responses to social feedback and their relation to behavioral aggression. In a large developmental twin sample (509 7‐ to 9‐year‐olds), the heritability and neural underpinnings of behavioral aggression following social evaluation were investigated, using the Social Network Aggression Task (SNAT). Participants viewed pictures of peers that gave positive, neutral, or negative feedback to the participant's profile. Next, participants could blast a loud noise toward the peer as an index of aggression. Genetic modeling revealed that aggression following negative feedback was influenced by both genetics and environmental (shared as well as unique environment). On a neural level (n = 385), the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex gyrus (ACCg) responded to both positive and negative feedback, suggesting they signal for social salience cues. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were specifically activated during negative feedback, whereas positive feedback resulted in increased activation in caudate, supplementary motor cortex (SMA), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Decreased SMA and DLPFC activation during negative feedback was associated with more aggressive behavior after negative feedback. Moreover, genetic modeling showed that 13%–14% of the variance in dorsolateral PFC activity was explained by genetics. Our results suggest that the processing of social feedback is partly explained by genetic factors, whereas shared environmental influences play a role in behavioral aggression following feedback.
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Studies have demonstrated a significant heritability for aggressive behaviors of up to 60%.
“Studies have demonstrated a significant heritability for aggressive behaviors of up to 60% [36–38].”
From Genetics of child aggression, a systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as [37]
The Introduction reports substantial heritability of behavioral aggression, but gives an estimate of up to 48%, not 60%. The Discussion reports genetic influences of 10–20% in this study and describes prior estimates as around 50%. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe influence of genes on aggressive behaviors can be augmented by the environment such that it decreases with decreasing positive social feedback or increasing parental negativity.
“However the influence of genes can be augmented by the environment such that it decreases with decreasing positive social feedback [37] or increasing parental negativity [38].”
From Genetics of child aggression, a systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as [37]
The Results (Behavioral analyses; page unavailable) estimate genetic influences on aggression at 20% for negative-versus-positive feedback and 10% for negative-versus-neutral feedback. These estimates are consistent with the stated direction, but they are for different feedback contrasts; the paper does not establish that decreasing positive feedback causes genetic influence to decline or demonstrate gene–environment moderation. The parental-negativity clause is attached to a different citation and is not assessed here. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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Genetics of child aggression, a systematic review
Koyama, E., Kant, T., Takata, A., Kennedy, J. L., & Zai, C. C. (2024) · Translational Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/s41398-024-02870-7 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
- Authors
- Achterberg, M., van Duijvenvoorde, A. C. K., van der Meulen, M., Bakermans‐Kranenburg, M. J., & Crone, E. A.
- Affiliations
- Leiden University (NL)
- Leiden Consortium on Individual Development Leiden University AK Leiden 2333 The Netherlands
- Corresponding author
- Achterberg, Michelle
- Venue
- Human Brain Mapping
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2018-03-12
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 2828-2841
- ISSN
- 1065-9471 (ISSN-L)
- 1097-0193
- PMC
- PMC6055731
- OpenAlex
- W2793499754
- Cited by
- 51
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 6.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Human Brain Mapping (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
- RePub (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (024.001.003)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- aggression, heritability, social evaluation, social feedback, middle childhood, genetic factors, shared environment, anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, supplementary motor area, inferior frontal gyrus, caudate nucleus, social salience
- MeSH terms
- Aggression, Caudate Nucleus, Cerebral Cortex, Child, Child Behavior, Female, Humans, Male, Motor Cortex, Social Behavior, Social Perception, Prefrontal Cortex, Feedback, Psychological, Gene-Environment Interaction
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