Neural Mehcanisms In Agression

Question 1

What does the neural explanation suggest causes aggression?

Answer 1

• Our brain drives our behaviour therefore the structure of the brain causes aggression to occur.

Question 2

What areas are associated with aggression?

Answer 2

-Limbic system and prefrontal cortex

Question 3

What is the limbic system and what two parts make it up?

Answer 3

• It is responsible for instinctive behaviours such as Agression, eating and sexual activity.
• It is made up of the hypothalamus and amygdala.

Question 4

How do we know that the limbic system is associated with aggression?

Answer 4

Electrical stimulation, lesioning and brain imaging techniques it has been found that the hypothalamus and amygdala are structures in the brain responsible for aggressive behaviour.

Question 5

What is the role of the pre frontal cortex in aggression?

Answer 5

-It controls inappropriate displays of aggression/ aggressive instincts. There are rules governing the expression of aggression in society and if the prefrontal cortex is damaged it makes it harder for an individual to control their aggressive instincts

Question 6

What is the role of the amygdala in aggression?

Answer 6

It is responsible for processing emotions which is part of the limbic system and damage to this area can cause testosterone to rise therefore increasing the chance of an aggressive act to occur.

Question 7

How does the prefrontal cortex control aggressive behaviour?

Answer 7

-It controls the limbic system more specifically the aggression transmitted from the limbic system, It is thought that the prefrontal cortex mediates the levels in the amygdala when it responds to environmental triggers.

Question 8

A03

Answer 8

Phineas gage
Whitman
Raine

Question 9

Outline how Whitman supports the neural explanation for aggression

Answer 9

• A man named Whitman acted aggressively towards her wife through out his university career and ended up killing her.
• Whitman then shot 14 people at the top of a tower in the university of Texas in 1966
• he wrote on his suicide letter for a post mortem examination to be done on him to see what was causing his aggressive behaviour to occur.
• They found that he had a tumour in his limbic system, this supports the fact that the structure of the brain determines whether someone is aggressive or not.

Question 10

Outline how Raine supports the neural explanation fro aggression?

Answer 10

• Raine compared PET cans of 41 murderers with non murderers and found murderers had lower levels of activity in their pre frontal cortex and amygdala
• He also found that Individuals with ADHD had lower levels of activity in their pre frontal cortex which is a disorder that prevents instinctual behaviour to be controlled.
• This supports the idea that the prefrontal cortex controls inappropriate displays of aggression by controlling the aggression transmitted from the amygdala.