Speaker
Description
Aggression is a public health concern, particularly in adolescents and young adults, and comprises reactive (RA) and proactive (PA) subtypes with distinct behavioral profiles. We investigated neuroanatomical and molecular correlates of RA and PA in 670 adolescents from the FemNAT-CD cohort using structural MRI, vertex-wise cortical thickness analyses, and imaging transcriptomics. Higher RA scores were associated with reduced cortical thickness in posterior occipito-temporo-parietal regions and increased thickness in sensorimotor, lateral prefrontal, auditory-temporal, and paralimbic areas. In contrast, higher PA scores were associated with increased thickness in occipito-parietal and auditory-temporal cortex, but reduced thickness in paralimbic, medial temporal, and somatosensory regions. Imaging transcriptomics identified 229 genes associated with RA and 87 with PA, with 53 overlapping genes enriched for synaptic organization pathways. RA-associated genes were enriched for stimulus-response and regulatory processes, whereas PA-associated genes showed enrichment for developmental and modulatory pathways, supporting distinct but partially overlapping neurobiological mechanisms across aggression subtypes.