Elsevier

NeuroImage: Clinical

Volume 14, 2017, Pages 201-215
NeuroImage: Clinical

White-matter tract abnormalities and antisocial behavior: A systematic review of diffusion tensor imaging studies across development

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2017.01.014Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Antisocial behavior (AB) is characterized by impaired emotion and reward processing.

  • These behaviors may develop from microstructural abnormalities of white-matter tracts.

  • We provide a systematic review of 22 diffusion tensor imaging studies of AB.

  • Adult AB was linked to greater diffusivity (“poorer integrity”) across a range of white-matter tracts.

  • For youth AB, there were mixed findings.

Abstract

Antisocial behavior (AB), including aggression, violence, and theft, is thought be underpinned by abnormal functioning in networks of the brain critical to emotion processing, behavioral control, and reward-related learning. To better understand the abnormal functioning of these networks, research has begun to investigate the structural connections between brain regions implicated in AB using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which assesses white-matter tract microstructure. This systematic review integrates findings from 22 studies that examined the relationship between white-matter microstructure and AB across development. In contrast to a prior hypothesis that AB is associated with greater diffusivity specifically in the uncinate fasciculus, findings suggest that adult AB is associated with greater diffusivity across a range of white-matter tracts, including the uncinate fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, cingulum, corticospinal tract, thalamic radiations, and corpus callosum. The pattern of findings among youth studies was inconclusive with both higher and lower diffusivity found across association, commissural, and projection and thalamic tracts.

Abbreviations

AB
antisocial behavior
AD
axial diffusivity
APD
antisocial personality disorder
CD
conduct disorder
CU
callous-unemotional
DMN
default mode network
DTI
diffusion tensor imaging
FA
fractional anisotropy
IFOF
inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus
ILF
inferior longitudinal fasciculus
MD
mean diffusivity
RD
radial diffusivity
SLF
superior longitudinal fasciculus
UF
uncinate fasciculus

Keywords

Antisocial behavior
Callous-unemotional traits
Diffusion tensor imaging
Neuroimaging
Psychopathy
Systematic review

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