Developmental Psychobiology of Aggression

by David M. Stoff, Elizabeth J. Susman

Overview

This book is the outgrowth of a memorial conference to honour the scientific contributions of Robert B. Cairns, an internationally recognised interdisciplinary developmental scientist. It is organised around research themes that were an integral part of Dr Cairns' theories and research: neural and developmental plasticity; brain-behaviour bidirectionality; gene-environment interactions. Throughout this book, these themes are linked together by employing animal models and clinical investigations through multiple levels of analysis approach to understanding the origins, development, desistance and prevention of aggression. These studies will add to the compendium of basic knowledge on the developmental psychobiology of aggression and will aid in the ultimate translation of this knowledge to clinical and community settings. This book hopes to foster the legacy of Robert B. Cairns to facilitate the theoretical development and research of a new generation of developmental scientists dedicated to relieving the tragic consequences of aggression on the individual and society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521826013
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/06/2005
Pages:	318
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.02(d)

About the Author

David M. Stoff, PhD is Chief of the extramural research program on the Neuropsychiatry of HIV/AIDS at the Center for Mental Health Research on AIDS at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Before joining NIMH in 1992, he had a long research career in animal psychopharmacology and the biology of childhood psychiatric disorders.

Elizabeth J. Susman is the Jean Phillips Shibley Professor of Biobehavioral Health in the Department of Biobehavioral Health at Pennsylvania State University. She was co-editor of the Journal of Research on Adolescence and has been a consulting editor for numerous scientific journals. Dr Susman is President of the Society for Research on Adolescents.

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Cambridge University Press
0521826012 - Developmental Psychobiology of Aggression - Edited by David M. Stoff and Elizabeth J. Susman
Excerpt

INTRODUCTION

1

Integrated Perspective for Psychobiological Research in Aggression: An Introduction

David M. Stoff
National Institute of Mental Health

Elizabeth J. Susman
The Pennsylvania State University

This volume is an outgrowth of a memorial conference to honor the scientific contributions and accomplishments of Robert B. Cairns, internationally recognized for his pioneering efforts as an interdisciplinary developmental scientist. His theories and research in humans and animals provided a template and direction for future research in the developmental sciences and the psychobiology of aggression. This perspective integrated biology with psychological development, emphasizing the dynamic interactions among biological, psychological, and environmental influences on development and behavior. Cairns described a conception of human developmental processes, characterized by biobehavioral organization and involving reciprocal interactions of bidirectionality, plasticity, and gene-environment relationships. This conceptual framework provided an expanded array of multiple biological and behavioral levels as it applied to aggression, offering a refreshing departure from the very limited unidimensional belief in the deterministic role that unfolding biology exerts on behavior (see Figure 1.1; Cairns, 1996).

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FIGURE 1.1. Models describing two interacting individuals (α, β) in terms of relationships within each individual and with each environment (from Cairns, 1996, p. 50).

In earlier volumes, we presented¹⁰ various research approaches to the biology of aggression (Stoff & Cairns, 1996) and provided a comprehensive review of research on many aspects of antisocial behavior (Stoff, Breiling, & Maser, 1997). This volume updates those works, principally from a developmental psychobiological viewpoint of aggression, emphasizing modern neuroscience approaches that focus not only on "bottom-up" causality (e.g., molecular processes involving genes, cells, and synapses) but also on "top-down" causality (e.g., more molar processes mediated by experiences). Both bottom-up and top-down forms of causality were particularly evident in the propositions by Cairns that explanations are required at multiple levels of analysis from the population level (i.e., epidemiology), through individual and group behavior, neuropathology, and systems-level neurobiology, to cellular and molecular neurobiology. This perspective of aggressive behavior, and, for that matter, any aspect of normal and abnormal behavior development, advocates a multidisciplinary approach that examines biological, psychological, and social-contextual aspects of development. Risk and protective factors cut across multiple levels of analysis, from the molecular and cellular through the psychological and social systems. A focus on multiple levels of analysis requires research designs and strategies that call for the simultaneous assessment of multiple domains of variables both within and outside of the developing person. All levels must be examined and integrated because each level both informs and constrains all other levels of analysis. Cairns most eloquently postulated these interrelationships in his notion that there are "correlated constraints" among variables that can be identified from the multiple sets of causal factors (e.g., genetic, behavioral, cognitive, contextual). As a consequence of these constraints, the major methodological challenge is to employ a holistic approach where individuals and not variables are the focus of analysis. Ideally, multiple levels of analyses should be integrated within the individual and not simply across studies.

Embedded within the holistic, multiple levels of analysis models are three concepts - plasticity, bidirectionality, and gene-environment interactions - that serve as themes around which this volume is structured. The plasticity theme (Part I) is represented in the chapters of Raine, Gendreau and Lewis, Ferris, and Graber, Brooks-Gunn, and Archibald; the bidirectionality theme (Part II) is represented in the chapters of Field, Zahn-Waxler and Usher, Moffitt and Caspi, and Worthman and Brown; the gene-environment theme (Part III) is represented in the chapters of Hood and Suomi. Although these aspects have been presented separately for purposes of communication, in practice they overlap, are interdependent, and often complement one another. Because these themes are pervasive throughout this volume, we found it useful to first elaborate upon them conceptually. We return to these themes in the final chapter illustrating how they are addressed by the findings of the contributing authors with an eye toward integration (Susman & Stoff).

PLASTICITY

The past 20 years of research in developmental neurobiology have raised serious problems for the nativist view, suggesting instead that the primate brain is extraordinarily plastic, and that cortical specialization is largely determined by brain activity and experience. The ramifications of plasticity are profound, indicating that brain structure and function during development, once thought to be deterministic, are now viewed as malleable and at times dependent on stimulation from the environment. Research has shown that the brain demonstrates remarkable plasticity during development, remodeling itself to attain its adult configuration. Such change can occur at many levels, from molecular to neural systems to behavior. We can conceptualize aggression as an integration of approaches at different levels wherein the brain operates in a plastic, self-organizing fashion and, as such, is less constrained by predetermined boundaries than previously thought. The major deterrent to this notion of the brain as plastic was the dogma of biological determinism, which inadequately represents the role of the environment. Both neural plasticity and developmental plasticity have become increasingly important to an understanding of mental health. Gaining knowledge about the mechanisms of plasticity and their patterns of timing across multiple levels of analyses will be challenging and complex.

BIDIRECTIONALITY

Today, the notion of "nature versus nurture" has been set aside in favor of a newer, more integrated model in which processes and outcomes of development are viewed as products of bidirectional interchanges between biology and the environment. Modern research now views brain development and function and their subsequent influence on behavior as possessing self-organizing properties that can, in fact, be altered by experiences at certain sensitive periods of development that occur across the life course. Bidirectionality implies that interactions with the environment have an impact on the course of biological development, which in turn affects behavior and functioning, and these changes in behavior then alter experiences. This model holds to a more integrative and dynamic transactional view of development that stresses the importance of both psychological and neural self-organization. To appreciate the full impact of adopting bidirectional models, research must acknowledge the importance of multiple levels analyses in both biological (molecular, cellular, organs, systems) and behavioral (individual, interaction, groups, and social-cultural) domains.

GENE-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS

For many, the terms nature and nurture implied a polarity. In his studies emphasizing integration, Cairns taught us of the need for an explicit research focus on the forms of interplay between genes and environment and how this interplay plays out over development and is involved in the causal mechanisms for the origins, persistence, and desistance over time of antisocial behavior. Although many acknowledge that genes endow individuals with certain tendencies regarding their interactions in social settings, it has only recently become accepted how environments are simultaneously essential both for the expression of specific genes and for changing the nature and timing of genetic expression. Although the conventional view is that genes create vulnerability to disease, it is equally likely that they protect against environmental insult. In his early inbreeding studies utilizing the then-new technology of "knockout mice," Cairns pointed to the potential of molecular genetics for understanding environmental risk mechanisms and the interplay between nature and nurture. In general, there has now been a call for a shift from a focus on the relative strength of nature and nurture effects on behavior to a concern for understanding how the interplay between the two comes about and how the interplay affects behavior.

PRINCIPLES OF AGGRESSION RESEARCH

Perhaps more than any other field, the study of aggression has been plagued by certain myths or misconceptions that must be overcome. We discussed some of these myths in our earlier volume on this topic (Stoff & Cairns, 1996), when the field was embroiled in sociopolitical controversy about biological/genetic aggression research (Stone, 1992). Here, we restate these myths in a more positive light, in the form of principles for contemporary psychobiological aggression research. With these rules of research in mind, the biological study of aggression will become more innovative by targeting mechanisms. We reiterate the position of Lederhendler (2003), recently stated in a special issue on the biology of aggression, that the major challenge will be to determine where, when, and how biological events operate in neural and endocrine systems to regulate aggressive behavior, rather than whether neurotransmitters, genes, or hormones "drive" or "cause" aggression.

1.	Aggression research must be interdisciplinary. The challenging, multidetermined problem of antisocial behavior must be approached through a cooperative effort by a team of investigators, each expert in the use of different methods and concepts, who join together to attack the problem from different vantage points. A breadth of expertise will be needed spanning diverse multiple disciplines including psychology, sociology, criminology, epidemiology and public health, psychiatry, neuroscience, genetics, biomedical science, and developmental sciences. Interdisciplinary collaborations among researchers will lead to a more complete and accurate understanding of the multifaceted biological, psychological, and social issues that are generated by the study of antisocial behavior. An integrated set of multidisciplinary, multimethod, multilevel studies utilizing the powerful newer tools of molecular biology, imaging, and genetics may someday allow us to identify the brain circuits and the neurobiological bases of macrostructural influences (e.g., poverty, familial and societal conditions) on aggression.
2.	Aggression research must be translational. As a special subset of interdisciplinary research, translational research attempts to integrate information from basic research laboratories to clinical settings and from clinical settings to practical, real-world environments. Good translational research should operate in both directions with the different domains informing one another. Many barriers will have to be overcome to facilitate the building of bridges among disciplines and settings - among the most important are issues related to communication, attitude, and philosophy and training opportunities. Despite the tremendous technological advances of molecular biology and neuroimaging, we remain mindful of the great knowledge gaps that still exist in translating findings from the basic sciences to psychosocial issues in the development of aggression. Nevertheless, interdisciplinary networks have the potential to integrate basic and clinical studies so that they can simultaneously inform each other and provide information about pathological aggression as well as normative development.
3.	Aggression research must utilize animal models. Presumed continuity of systems and functions across species is the rationale for animal research on aggression. The use of animal models requires a comparative approach in which the goal is to study the same or a similar phenomenon across multiple species (e.g., rodents, monkeys, humans). An important focus of this approach will be to use specific species in studies for which they are best suited, yet to simultaneously use similar techniques in other species. Although animal aggression research can potentially tell us a great deal about anger, fear, cognition, emotion regulation, temperament, or other behavioral traits related to aggression, it alone is not very revealing about war, terrorism, or other complicated forms of mass violence. Notwithstanding this issue, animal models will undoubtedly make substantial contributions in the analysis of the heterogeneity of aggression to elucidating the underlying neurobiological mechanisms for individual subtypes. The division into offensive and defensive forms of animal aggression has been quite successful, and similar typologies will be needed in applying knowledge from animal models to the human condition.
4.	Aggression research must take a dimensional, phenotypic approach. Since aggressive behavior is often seen in a group of "antisocial disorders" (e.g., antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder), it may be more fruitful to concentrate on features of a phenotype (i.e., behavioral dimensions) that transcend a specific pathological category and are expressed across different psychiatric diagnoses. The phenotypes that are most relevant for aggression include inhibitory control and affect regulation and involve a wide range of traits, such as impulsivity, fear, anger, and hostility. By breaking apart and dissecting out the component parts of a particular phenotype (e.g., the sensation-seeking component of impulsivity or the frustration-tolerance, irritability component of affect dysregulation), it may be more possible to link basic neurobiological processes to aggression. Because aggression is not a unitary entity and interacts with a broad range of other behaviors and environmental events (including emotion regulation, information processing, stress, and social activity), biological research should focus on identifying the regulatory brain circuitry for these fundamental components of behavior.
5.	Aggression research must be sensitive to ethical and societal implications of biological and genetic issues. It is important to recognize that aggression must be viewed as a functional behavior that can only be understood in a social context in which there are multiple causes and potential biological influences. Some have commented on how aggression research has the potential to be viewed as appalling misuses of biological approaches to behavioral "problems," and these examples are sometimes used today to suggest that biology is especially prone to misuse. To prevent misuse, we must be scrupulous in applying modern ethical principles, which should be reexamined and renewed at regular intervals. It is clear that there is no such thing as an aggression or violence gene and there is no biological test that accurately identifies a simple predictor, a "marker," of aggression or violent behavior. Genes or biological events do not cause aggressive or violent behavior; rather, they potentially leave us more or less vulnerable to stressful life experiences or other environmental, social experiences that may precipitate violence. The determinants of human behavior, in particular aggression, are many and complex, and every aspect of our biology is at some level the product of the environment. It is incumbent on the research community to be sensitive to these views in the conduct of genetic and biological research on aggression.

Attention to the foregoing constructs of plasticity, bidirectionality, and gene-environment interactions and to the principles discussed may provide an unprecedented opportunity for a program of research on aggression within an integrated framework of the developmental sciences. It is hoped that the ensuing chapters and a new generation of psychobiological researchers in aggression will help to carry out the legacy of Robert B. Cairns, one of the most distinguished researchers and eloquent advocates of an integrated multilevel approach to the development of aggression.

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© Cambridge University Press

Table of Contents

Foreword Felton Earls MD; 1. An integrated perspective on contemporary psychobiological research in aggression David M. Stoff and Elizabeth J. Susman; 2. Animal studies on inappropriate aggressive behaviour following stress and alcohol exposure in adolescence Craig F. Ferris; 3. Touch deprivation and aggression against self among adolescents Tiffany Field; 4. Social deprivation, social-emotional behaviour, and the plasticity of dopamine function Paul L. Gendreau and Mark H. Lewis; 5. Running head: identifying pathways for adjustment Julia A. Graber, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Andrea B. Archibald; 6. Toward an integrative account of the development of aggressive behaviour Kathryn E. Hood; 7. Life-course persistent and adolescent-limited antisocial males: longitudinal follow-up to adulthood Terrie E. Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi; 8. The interaction of biological and social measures in the explanation of antisocial and violent behavior Adrian Raine; 9. How gene-environment interactions shape the development of impulsive aggression in Rhesus monkeys Stephen J. Suomi; 10. A biocultural life history approach to the developmental psychobiology of male aggression Carol M. Worhman and Ryan A. Brown; 11. Intersections of biology and behaviour in young children's antisocial patterns: the role of development, gender and socialisation Carolyn Zahn-Waxler and Barbara Usher; 12. Psychobiology of aggressive behaviour: a synthesis and reconsideration Elizabeth J. Susman and David M. Stoff.