Aggressive Gestures Research Articles

Improved Perception of Aggression Under (un)Related Threat of Shock.

Anxiety shifts visual attention and perceptual mechanisms, preparing oneself to detect potentially threatening information more rapidly. Despite being demonstrated for threat-related social stimuli, such as fearful expressions, it remains unexplored if these effects encompass other social cues of danger, such as aggressive gestures/actions. To this end, we recruited a total of 65 participants and asked them to identify, as quickly and accurately as possible, potentially aggressive actions depicted by an agent. By introducing and manipulating the occurrence of electric shocks, we induced safe and threatening conditions. In addition, the association between electric shocks and aggression was also manipulated. Our result showed that participants have improved sensitivity, with no changes to criterion, when detecting aggressive gestures during threat compared to safe conditions. Furthermore, drift diffusion model analysis showed that under threat participants exhibited faster evidence accumulation toward the correct perceptual decision. Lastly, the relationship between threat source and aggression appeared to not impact any of the effects described above. Overall, our results indicate that the benefits gained from states of anxiety, such as increased sensitivity toward threat and greater evidence accumulation, are transposable to social stimuli capable of signaling danger other than facial expressions.

‘전지현 효과’ 개념 제안을 위한 몸짓에 대한 고찰

This study analyzes the aggressive gestures of her (Jun Jihyeon) in <My Sassy Girl> (2001) as a star actor's performance based on Barry King and Paul McDonald, and proposes the concept of 'Jun Jihyeon effect' as a gesture of a new gender, and reconsiders its social implications and effects. The romantic aggression created by the heroine, the Girl’s aggressive gestures during this exploration process, and the resulting pleasure are called the 'Jun Jihyun effect.' Although her gesture seems to symbolize sexual difference, in reality, it denotes sexual difference, visually embodying the process of gender performativity; that is, the gendered gestures are not absolute. The Girl’s gesture functions as a gender marker of Eastern Asian visual culture by embodying the gender identity of a new era through the Jun Jihyun effect in this sense.

Impacts of users' antisocial behaviors in an ophthalmologic emergency department--a qualitative study.

Health-care workers in emergency departments are frequently exposed to risk of antisocial behavior and violence (ABV) by users. Underreporting of ABV by health-care professionals has been identified. In order to understand this phenomenon, we explored the experience of ABV in 30 health workers in an ophthalmology emergency department in the Rhône-Alpes administrative region of France. A grounded theory qualitative approach was followed. Data were collected from field observations, 30 semistructured individual interviews, violence report forms, and 364 patient satisfaction questionnaires. Qualitative thematic content analysis of the interviews was performed with qualitative data analysis software. Third-party antisocial behaviors and violence were an everyday occurrence, with varying levels of seriousness: impoliteness, vulgarity, nonrecognition, insults, verbal threats, and aggressive gestures. Health-care workers adopted various strategies to adapt to such violence: proactive and reactive attitudes and avoidance. Several organizational factors concerning the political and economic context, hospital work organization, and health workers' behavior were identified as potentially contributing to ABV. Excessive waiting times, lack of user information, and understaffing emerged as factors contributing to users' ABV. Antisocial behaviors by hospital users are underreported by professionals and under-recognized. They appear to be like continuous occupational exposure leading to delayed adverse consequences either on workers' health or motivation. However, violence in hospitals is not the result of only the action of users, and it may be related to work organization and workers' own behaviors. Only a grounded analysis of the causes of violence in the local work context can uncover relevant solutions.

L’asepsie en échographie interventionnelle

Osteoarticular interventional injections guided with ultrasound are playing an increasingly role in Rheumatology. The simultaneous handling of the probe and the needle might suggest the need to take greater aseptic precautions with respect to actions usually performed in anatomical injections. Are they justified? We have no data going in this direction, and a randomized study is impossible because of the rarity of events. We review the different parameters of the aseptic procedure, about the patient (primarily skin disinfection), about the practitioner (mainly wearing sterile gloves or not) and material (protection of ultrasound probe and distance to the needle). The procedure is probably at least as important as the material. Attention needs to be focused on the integrity of the asepsis of the needle. We may not prick into the gel because we can bring non-biodegradable polyacrylate or propylene glycol in tissues. We cannot conclude that the inflation of aseptic measures implemented during a musculoskeletal ultrasound guided gesture is justified. Nevertheless, for some more complex and aggressive gestures, for some fragile patients, and according to the place of practice, we can consider more important infection control procedures, but in the same way as a usual gestures. Only practices observatory, not only by the number of repair procedures administered by the physical damage insurance, but prospectively and on a very large scale at a national level to bring us more precise answers.

Time for Introspection?

Time for Introspection?

The amygdala and development of social cognition: Theoretical comment on Bauman, Toscano, Mason, Lavenex, and Amaral (2006).

Nonhuman primate studies, using selective amygdala lesions that spare cortical areas and fibers of passage, have helped to clarify the amygdala's specific contribution to social and emotional behavior. M. D. Bauman, J. E. Toscano, W. A. Mason, P. Lavenex, and D. G. Amaral (2006) reported that macaque monkeys (Macaca mulatta) with neonatal neurotoxic amygdala lesions displayed lower rank in social dominance status, reduced aggressive gestures, and enhanced fearful reactions to social cues compared with normal controls and those with neonatal hippocampal lesions when tested as juveniles in a group of peers. These results are discussed in light of a recent study (C. J. Machado & J. Bachevalier, 2006) showing that the same selective amygdala damage in adolescent monkeys did not alter presurgical social dominance status. This variability in behavioral changes after selective amygdala lesions underscores the significant interplay between timing of the lesion, genetic traits, and environmental factors and suggests that the amygdala is not the generator of specific emotional responses, but acts as a modulator to ensure that emotional responses are appropriate to the external stimuli and social context.

Public Intimacy: Dynamics of Seduction in Male Homosocial Interactions

Male-to-male (homosocial) friendship bonds extend from the public to the private sphere. Relying on in-depth interviews from a sample of thirty Israeli men sharing a common background of military socialization, this article analyzes how male friends communicate intimacy in public spaces with diverse social and organizational settings. In contrast to the common depiction of men’s joking-relationship as an attempt to maintain autonomy, the author suggests that the homosocial performance is a semi-arbitrary, ambivalent language of relatedness endorsing closeness. The men participate in humorous interactions involving idioms, nicknames, curses, nonsense talk, aggressive gestures, and embraces. These verbal and bodily expressions send an unclear message that teases the participants and draws them to engage deeper in the interaction, generating a dynamic of seduction. The men’s expressive interactions are staged publicly under the guise of instrumental action. It is suggested that although this homosocial staging attempts to erase hints of homoeroticism, it is this very erasure that produces desire as its emergent outcome. Set against the backdrop of instrumental activity, this performance of pleasure serves to empower and privilege male social and organizational networks.

Aggressive Biting Behavior and Seizures

The biting behavior (BB) and other aggressive gestures in a group of 11 patients (8 male; 3 female) with drug-resistant seizures were studied in presurgical evaluations using video-EEG/SEEG monitoring at University of Bologna; Niguarda Hospital, Milan; and University of Modena, Italy.

Biting Behavior, Aggression, and Seizures

To describe the semiologic features of aggressive behaviors observed in human epileptic seizures with particular reference to the act of biting a conspecific. We analyzed the biting behavior (BB) and other aggressive gestures occurring in a group of 11 patients retrospectively selected from >1,000 patients subjected to video-EEG/SEEG monitoring for presurgical evaluation of drug-resistant seizures. Patients displaying BB showed (a) a male sex predominance, (b) heterogeneous etiologies and lesion locations, and (c) seizures involving the frontotemporal regions of both hemispheres. The act of biting was a rapid motor action, lasting approximately 600 ms, occurring in the context of strong emotional arousal, fear, and anger, with various bodily gestures with aggressive connotation. BB was mainly a "reflexive" behavior, in that biting acts were evoked (both during and after seizures) by actions of people in close contact with the patient. The sole intrusion of the examiner's hand in the space near the patient's face was effective in triggering BB. Rarely, self-directed or object-directed biting acts were not triggered by external stimuli. Intracranial data (SEEG) obtained in one subject showed that the amygdala/hippocampal region plus the orbitomedial prefrontal cortex had to be involved by ictal activity to observe BB. Anatomic and electrophysiologic data in our patients suggest that a model of dual--temporal and frontal--dysfunction could account for the occurrence of ictal/postictal BB. Behavioral data suggest also that BB and related aggressive gestures can be considered as the emergence of instinctive behaviors with an adaptative significance of defense of the peripersonal space.

Dealing With Disruptive and Emotional College Students: A Systems Model

Disruptive behaviors confound faculty, staff, and administrators. This article proposes a systemic model for handling disruptive behaviors. The model, in which college counselors have a leading role, uses faculty liaisons, a faculty and staff handbook, faculty and staff training, and policy development to address the problem.

Aggression and brain serotonergic responsivity: Response to slides in male macaques

The association between central serotonergic responsivity (measured by prolactin response to acute administration of fenfluramine hydrochloride) and aggressivity was examined in 40 adult male cynomolgus monkeys ( Macaca fascicularis). Prolactin response to fenfluramine was distributed bi-modally with 24 monkeys displaying a “low” prolactin response and 15 showing a “high” prolactin response to the fenfluramine challenge. Behavioral responsivity was assessed by placing the monkeys individually in an open-field enclosure and presenting a series of photographic slides depicting both threatening and nonthreatening images. Monkeys that were low prolactin responders displayed significantly more aggressive gestures in response to a threatening slide of a human being than did the high responders ( p < 0.05). Insofar as fenfluramine-stimulated prolactin release assesses serotonergic responsivity, these data support related findings in people and nonhuman primates linking reduced serotonergic activity and aggression.

Evidence for Dopamine Mediation of Submissive Gestures in the Stumptail Macaque Monkey

Evidence gathered from several experiments where stimulant drugs were given to selected members of adult Stumptail macaque social colonies is presented which suggests that dopamine systems play an important part in the mediation of submissive behavior in this species. Chronic administration of d-amphetamine, 3.2 mg/kg/day, for 12 days, induced a significant increase in submissive gestures displayed by some treated monkeys despite the lack of a significant concurrent increase in aggressive gestures directed toward these animals. This behavioral change was antagonized by haloperidol and pimozide, two agents with preferential dopamine receptor blocking properties. The dopamine receptor agonist apomorphine induced a large dose-dependent increase in submissive gestures displayed by treated monkeys. Repeated administration of apomorphine, 1.0 mg/kg/day, for 12 days, induced a significant increase in submissive gestures comparable to amphetamine in monkeys who had previously received chronic d-amphetamine treatment. In addition, it appears that the significant increase in submissive gestures by monkeys treated with the hallucinogen 5-methoxy N,N-dimethyltryptamine is also mediated through dopamine systems since the preferential dopamine receptor blockers haloperidol and trifluoperazine antagonized this response while the serotonin antagonists cinanserin, methysergide, metergoline, and cyproheptadine all failed to antagonize or even potentiate this behavioral change. These results have important implications in the study of animal behavior and may have relevance to drug-induced and endogenous psychopathologies in humans as well.