BRAIN Needs SEROTONIN To Restrain AGGRESSION

Brain needs serotonin to restrain aggression

TETCHY people might calm down if they had more of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Researchers gave 19 healthy volunteers a diet that reduced their serotonin levels and then scanned their brains. They found that communication between the brain's amygdala regions, which process fear, and its restraining prefrontal cortex had broken down. That schism could unleash disproportionately violent reactions to mild threats.

The team discovered the effect by showing the serotonin-poor volunteers pictures of angry, sad or neutral faces as they were having functional MRI brain scans. The volunteers were asked to say whether each image was of a man or a woman, but the real intention was to see how their brains reacted to the threat posed by angry faces.

The scans showed that in all volunteers, the connectivity between the amygdalas and the prefrontal cortex was reduced when they viewed angry faces (Biological Psychiatry, DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.07.033). The effect was strongest in those with violent tendencies, as identified in a questionnaire. "It's as if the intervening voice of reason was lost," says Luca Passamonti, head of the team at Italy's Neuroimaging Research Unit in Catanzaro.

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BRAIN Needs SEROTONIN To Restrain AGGRESSION

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