Brain structure + aggression Flashcards
Brain structure + aggression
Frontal Lobe
Frontal lobe is responsible for:
thinking
planning
problem solving
behavioral control of emotions
and decision making
If damaged this may cause a reduction in control of emotions meaning that progressive impulses may become more common
Brain structure + aggression
structure
🟥 🟧
🟨 🟩
🟪
🟦
🟥 Frontal lobe (at very front is prefrontal cortex)
🟧 Parietal lobe
🟨 Temporal lobe
🟩 Occipital lobe
🟪 Cerebellum
🟦 Brain Stem
Brain structure + aggression
Parietal lobe
This lobe is responsible for:
object classification
spelling
the knowledge of numbers
and visio spatial knowledge
sences such as hearing and smelling
If damaged this may result in a reduced level of hearing meaning that the person cannot hear the response of people that they are committing aggressive acts towards and therefore they’ll be less likely to reconsider and stop therefore increasing aggression
Brain structure + aggression
Temporal lobe
This lobe is responsible for
memory
facial recognition
language
speech
If damages may reduce the facial recognition and therefore somebody may not realise that the person who they are being aggressive towards is scared and therefore they are less likely to reconsider as they think that they’re being aggressive towards them so they are aggressive back
Brain structure + aggression
Occipital lobe
This lobe is responsible for:
vision
visual processing
colour identification
If this is damaged it may reduce the accuracy of the visual processing of their surroundings therefore somebody could mistake and item for a weapon and then become more aggressive towards them in an attempt to defend themselves
Brain structure + aggression
brain stem
This area of the brain is responsible for:
The heart rate
regulating body temperatures
swallowing
and breathing
Brain structure + aggression
The cerebellum
This part the brain is responsible for:
Gross and fine motor skills
hand eye coordination
and balance
Brain structure + aggression
Prefrontal cortex what it is
the prefrontal Cortex (located in the frontal lobe) is responsible for:
attention and focus
personality expression
the planning of complex cognitive behaviors
personality
have an input on emotional responses
and control social inhibitions
act as a Voice of Reason
and guides us in an attempt to make rational decisions rather than impulsive ones
Brain structure + aggression
Prefrontal cortex and aggression
If the prefrontal cortex is damaged it may have reduced control over social inhibition and rational decision making this may result in irrational impulse behaviour that can lead to aggressive behaviour and violence
And a complete change in personality
Such as in Phineas gage (1848) who had a railway prop pipe inserted through his prefront or Cortex out of the accident his personality changed from calm to quite violent and angry this demonstrates a loss of control of social inhibition
Brain structure (limbic system)
hypothalamus + aggression
This controls
Thirst
hunger
sleep
mood
and neurotransmitters (NT)
sends hormones to the PITUITARY GALND to signal it to make more hormones
this may cause aggression as the NT adreniline to be released and highten the fight or flight response
and then cuase possible aggression if the fight path is chosen
Brain structure (limbic system)
Pitruitry gland + aggression
this gland releases many hormones which helped carry out activitys such as:
growth
metabolism
reproduction
response to stress
if damaged it may relece an unbalenced quantity of Testosterone which as been linked to aggressive behaviour by Wanger et al 1979 who injected it into castraited mice that went back to pre castration levels of aggression
Brain structure (limbic system)
Amygdala + aggression
The Amygdala is responsible for emotions such as:
fear
aggression
emotional responses from the environment
also decision-making
damage to the amygdala such as the one observed in rayne et al 1997 resulted in the left side having lower glucous metabolism than the control group and the right having higher
this resulted in violent crinimal behaviour (murder) and hightened aggression
Brain structure (limbic system)
hippocampus + aggression
Responsible for formation of new LTM and the transition between STM and LTM
if linked with the amygdala then memories will have an emotional tie and therefore will be transported straight to LTM
due to both systems being active at the same time creating a strong memory
This can be linked to aggression as if the hippocampus is damaged the post may not be able to remember the punishments for a previous aggressive acts and therefore would not be put off doing the aggressive act
Brain structure + aggression
Corpus collosum + aggression
This part of the brain links the two hemisphers of the brain therefore damaged this area the brain mainly to the miscommunication which may result in unrational aggressive outbursts due to one side of the brain attempting to counter the other side of the brain doing a paticular activity
when in reality it isnt
e.g reducing cortisol as it thinks the otherside has low testosterone levels
when in reality the testosterone levels are normal so this just increases aggression
