Characterization Of Perpetrators Of Domestic Violence

家庭暴力在美国是一个严重的问题。大多数关于家庭暴力病因学的研究都侧重于心理社会因素，而很少强调生物因素。在过去的一年里，我们的手稿发表在《心理生理学》杂志上，报道了在对照组中呼吸性窦性心律失常和心率之间的强烈关联，但在家庭暴力肇事者中没有。我们分析了从PET成像中获得的数据，发现与对照组相比，家庭暴力肇事者下丘脑的葡萄糖代谢降低。肇事者还显示出几个皮质和皮质下结构与杏仁核之间的葡萄糖代谢相关性降低。这些数据支持我们的假设，即一些家庭暴力肇事者在控制恐惧诱导的攻击行为表达的结构和途径上存在异常。

Domestic violence is a problem of major proportions in the United States. The majority of studies pertaining to the etiology of domestic violence have focused on psychosocial parameters and given little emphasis to biological factors. During the past year our manuscript, reporting a strong association between respiratory sinus arrhythmia and heart rate in controls but not in domestic violence perpetrators, was published in the J Psychophysiology. We analyzed data obtained from PET imagining and found that perpetrators of domestic violence have decreased glucose metabolism in the hypothalamus compared to controls. Perpetrators also showed decreased correlations in glucose metabolism between several cortical and subcortical structures and the amygdala. These data support our hypothesis that some perpetrators of domestic violence have abnormalities in the structures and pathways that control the expression of fear-induced aggression.