Abstract
‘Cool’ executive functions (EF) refer to logical and strategic cognitive processes such as planning and reasoning, whereas ‘hot’ EF include affect-driven cognitive processes, such as risk-taking in decision making. In the present crosssectional study was investigated whether prisoners perform worse than non-prisoners on measures of hot and cool EF. Subsequent objectives were to determine if performance on tasks of executive functioning was related to measures of (reactive and proactive) aggression within the offender group, and whether testosterone and cortisol influenced the latter relationship. Male prisoners (n = 125) and a non-offender control group (n = 32) completed frequently applied measures of hot and cool EF (assessed with the Iowa Gambling task and Wisconsin Card Sorting Task respectively). Aggression characteristics in prisoners were assessed through self-report questionnaires, behavioural observations, and conviction histories. Endogenous testosterone and cortisol levels were obtained through saliva samples, while prenatal testosterone exposure was determined using the finger length of the index and ring fingers (the ‘2D:4D ratio’). The results indicated that prisoners performed significantly worse than non-prisoners on cool EF, and to a lesser extent on hot EF, but no meaningful relationship could be proven between measures of EF and aggression in the offender group. Weak to moderate significant correlations were found between testosterone/cortisol ratios (not prenatal testosterone exposure) and hot EF as well as self-reported aggression. These results lead to the conclusion that prisoners show significant problems in cool and hot EF compared to non-prisoners. These problems are not clearly associated with characteristics of aggression, but preliminary results indicate that these may be related to having high endogenous testosterone levels relative to cortisol levels.
Highlights
Executive functions (EF) usually refer to deliberate, topdown neurocognitive processes involved in the conscious, goal-directed control of thought, action, and emotion, of which mental set-shifting, planning and monitoring, and inhibition of prepotent responses are the most wellknown [1,2]
The present study aims to investigate (1) whether male prisoners perform worse than non-prisoners on measures of cool and hot EF, (2) if outcome on measures of hot and cool EF can be statistically predicted by measures of aggression, and, (3) whether this relation between aggression and EF may be influenced by testosterone/cortisol levels
The Mann-Whitney Test showed that there was no significant difference between prisoners and non-prisoners in the distribution of their scores on the five blocks of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), there seemed to be a trend in the expected direction during the final 20 card draws in block 5, U = 2.19, z = 1.61, p =
Summary
Executive functions (EF) usually refer to deliberate, topdown neurocognitive processes involved in the conscious, goal-directed control of thought, action, and emotion, of which mental set-shifting, planning and monitoring, and inhibition of prepotent responses are the most wellknown [1,2] These EF have been labelled as relatively ‘cool’ cognitive functions, in which reasoning plays an important role. Deficits in EF are associated with a wide range of problems in daily life functioning, including criminal and aggressive behaviour, which is often due to insufficient self-regulation [10] This robust relationship between poor EF and criminal/aggressive behavior has been well established in two large meta analyses [11,12]. Risky decision making is related in a lesser extent to proactive forms of aggression, which points to goaldirected, instrumental aggressive behaviour in order to obtain a desirable advantage [14,15]
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