Decoding dynamic reciprocal neural mechanism underlying reactive aggression: Insights from fMRI and fNIRS hyperscanning (A06)

• Subject Area: Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 512007073

fMRI and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning techniques will be used to explore how brain-to-brain synchrony and dynamic processes within peer dyads facilitate or inhibit aggressive behavior under diverse levels of provocation in adolescent patients and controls. In two fully interactive tasks, we will probe aggressive behavior towards a task partner, and quantify the building of interpersonal trust/distrust applying a social interaction and economic exchange paradigm. Between-brain neural synchrony will be computed and related to everyday social experiences and individual predispositions to identify markers for the prediction of aggressive behavior.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 379: Neuropsychobiology of Aggression: A Transdiagnostic Approach in Mental Disorders
• Applicant Institution: Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen
• Project Heads: Professorin Dr. Kerstin Konrad; Professor Dr. Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg; Dr. Vanessa Reindl