Altered Resting-State Functional Connectivity in the Default Mode Network in Male Juvenile Violent Offenders

Qiaoling Sun,Jiansong Zhou,Xiaoping Wang,Yingdong Zhang

doi:10.1007/s11682-021-00535-3

Abstract

Young males are often associated with more violence, leading to some serious negative consequences. However, the physiology and the neuroimaging patterns underlying juvenile violence remain unclear. Of the limited knowledge on juvenile violence, the default mode network has been known to be associated with its pathophysiology. This study aimed to investigate functional connectivity alterations of the default mode network in male juvenile violent offenders. 31 juvenile violent offenders in a high-security facility, who were convicted of aggressive behaviors by court, and 28 normal controls from a middle school were recruited as participants. They underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. And independent component analysis approaches were used to analyze their data. Compared to the normal controls, the juvenile violent offenders showed a different default mode network pattern, with the functional connectivity increased in the posterior cingulate, and decreased in the right middle temporal, left angular, right precuneus and right middle frontal cortex. Our findings revealed that the male juvenile violent offenders were associated with abnormal default mode network functional connectivity, which might be a neuroimaging basis for their tendency to violence.

Highlights

In recent years, the number of violent crimes has been increasing worldwide (Krug et al, 2002; Mikton et al, 2016), with juveniles and young adults associated with a higher rate of violent crimes than those in other age groups
Some neuroscientific studies have found that the brain is more like a huge intricate network and the cognitive, thinking, and controlling functions rely on its comprehensive processing of information (Piquero et al, 2003)
The demographic and clinical characteristics of the 30 juvenile violent offenders and 28 normal controls included for analysis of default mode network (DMN) are presented in Tables 1 and 2

Summary

Introduction

The number of violent crimes has been increasing worldwide (Krug et al, 2002; Mikton et al, 2016), with juveniles and young adults associated with a higher rate of violent crimes than those in other age groups. The DMN is composed of a group of distant brain regions (Welsh et al, 2008), including the posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, medial prefrontal cortex and lateral/medial temporal lobes, and plays an essential role in emotional processing, monitoring environment changes, self-introspection, maintaining selfawareness, as well as extracting episodic memories (Piquero et al, 2003). This network is crucial in the integration of information (Welsh et al, 2008) and has significant functional relation with other areas of the brain. An aberrant activity or connectivity within the DMN might be associated with abnormal internal reactions to external stimuli, affecting various emotional and behavioral processes (Rosell & Siever, 2015)

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