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Montoya, terburg, van honk (2012) testosterone, cortisol and serotonin as key regulators of social agression

39 important questions on Montoya, terburg, van honk (2012) testosterone, cortisol and serotonin as key regulators of social agression

What is the difference in impulsive/reactive aggression and instrumental aggression

Impulsive; unplanned and driven by affect

instrumental; premediated, characterized by a lack of emotions

The balance between .... And ..... Levels might be predictive for both types of aggression

Testosterone

cortisol ratio

The interaction between testosterone and cortisol makes a distinguish between impulsive and instrumental subtypes of aggression

true of false

False, it rather indicates whether a person shows aggressive behavior or not

Where are cortisol and testosterone products of

HPA and HPG

Which three levels does the HPA axis consist?

1. Paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus which produces corticotropin releasing hormone in response to stress.
CRH promotes release of adrenocorticotropic hormone by the pituitary (ACTH)

2. ACTH then stimulates the adrenal cortex which ultimately leads to the ..

3. Synthesis and release of glucocorticodes.

The HPG axis also consists of three levels, which three?

1/2. First two levels are the hypothalamus and pituitary gland that release gonadotropin releasing hormone and lutenizing hormone together with follicle stimulating hormone

3. LH and FSH are transported to the gonads where they produce T, the end product of HPG axis

Which hormone inhibits HPG axis activity at all levels?

CRT (cortisol)

Which hormone inhibits HPA activity

Testosterone at the level of the hypothalamus

How can it be that the interaction of the HPG and HPA axes may be different between sexes

Because of the difference in androgen production

What does the T/CRT ratio hypothesis state

That a predisposition for social aggression develops from an imbalance of CRT and T.

Why do steriods have long term influence on social aggression

By up-regulating neuropeptide gene expression

How can testosterone promote aggressive approach

- t elevates vasopressin gene expression at the amygdala > which facilitates an aggressive approach

- T can regulate aggressive behavior by its conversion to estradiol which also promotes aggression

How can cortisol promote fear

Excess CRT and CRH promotes CRH gene expression in the amygdala, which facilitates fear and behavioral withdrawal.

Testosterone and cortisol influence the amygdala in different ways. What do these different action mechanisms at the amygdala influence?

Fight/flight system and seem to have diametrically opposite effects at the behavioral level

When is the emotional stroop task used

Used to investigate attentional responses towards emotional facial expressions.

How does the emotional stroop task work

Colored facial expressions are shown and the participants must name the color of the face as fast as possible. It is assumed that longer response latencies indicate a vigilant response towards facial expression, but faster color naming latencies point at an avoidant emotional response to the expression

What has been showed in the outcome of emotional stroop task

That gaze aversion away from angry faces was slower in subjects that scored high on dominance and anger. Also, it is shown that high salivary T levels are related to this vigilant response towards angry faces and avoidant responsiveness towards fearful faces

What are the outcome of emotional stroop task studies provided by double blind, placebo controlled within subject administration studies

Show that autonomic responding (heart rate) to angry faces increases, while autonomic responding to fear decreases following T administration.

administration of T reduces biased attention toward fearful faces in femaless on masked stroop task

studies suggest that when T is high, automatic and attentional vigilance towards facial anger cues increases while it decreases towards facial signs of fear

Higher levels of T are related to ...., what kind of response to angry faces?

Approach response toward angry faces

Higher levels of CRT are associated with ...., what kind of response to angry faces?

Avoidant response to angry faces, fearful withdrawal and reduced aggression

In terms of social aggression the studies overall suggest that the combination of ....... Endogenous T and ...... Endogenous CRT levels will lead to a heightened proneness for social aggression

High T levels
low CRT levels

Where does the effects of exgenous CRT particulary tap into

Anxiety.

Where does the effects of exgenous T particulary taps into

Anger as well as fear, as T increases approach and decreases aviodance motivation

Why are social economic decision making paradigms used instead of emotional stroop task

Stroop task is difficult to translate into real world situations

Give a example of social economic decision making paradigms

Iowa Gambling task > about the balance between punishment and reward sensitivity which is directly related to aggression

How is aggression accompanied looking at reward and punishment

High reward drive
low punishment sensivity

How is fearfulness associated with punishment and reward

High punishment
low reward sensitivity

What is another social economic decision making paradigm

Ultimatum game

How does the ultimatum game work

This paradigm brings in a social component to the decision making by letting participants play against another player. Gaat er steeds om of je het geld deelt of zelf houdt. Iedere ronde wordt er opnieuw een keuze gemaakt vanuit beide spelers

What came out of the ultimatum game studie

- status hypothesis; which entails that T will not lead to antisocial behavior but tot behavior aimed at getting high social status.
by taking a more fair decision, women have a lesser chance of being rejected.

- T might increase prosocial behavior because such behavior is instrumental in preventing social rejection.
high t levels predict high rejection rates in males and females.

while in male participants administering testosterone seemed to lead to social economic decisions related to aggressive behavior, this effect was not seen in women.

How do steriod effects on neural circuitry underly aggression

Exogenous T increased neural responses towards angry faces within the reactive aggression circuity of the brain. The amygdala is a key structure in the signaling of threat stimuli and is supposed to regulate the processing thereof.

neuroimaging studies with CRT administration show that exogenous CRT seems to dampen amygdala reactivity in general, while T sensitizes the amgydala selectively towards angry faces.

How are low serotonin levels related to impulsivity

In animal research it is found that serotonin might be causally involved in aggression.

low levels of serotonin are associated with impulsivity and agression leading to the hypothesis that low levels of serotonin and high levels of T facilitate impulsive aggression

Where is high levels of serotonin (5-HT) related to?

Increased moral and prosocial behavior.

What is the conclusion looking at T/CRT ratio and 5-HT (serotonin)

We propose that the T/CRT ratio modulates the biobehavioral balance between aggression and fear and that in individuals with a high T/CRT ratio, who thus have an aggressive disposition, low 5-HT induces impulsive aggression

High T with low CRT predisposes ..

Social aggression

What can 5-HT modulate

The balance between impulsive and instrumental aggression

What do neuroimaging studies show looking at aggressive individuals

Impulsive aggressive individuals are characterized by amygdala hyper responsiveness

instrumental aggressive individuals show amygdala hypo-responsiveness towards threats.

Wat was het verschil tussen mannen en vrouwen in de ultimane game

More male in affective sciene studies because of the menstrual cyclus of women > this is too complicated for studies. They want a homogenous group > but don’t man have changes in hormone levels?

Ultimate game; mannen zijn eerder geneigd om meer met hun geld te spotten (social dominance) dan vrouwen. Vrouwen zijn meer geneigd om bescheiden met het geld om te gaan en mee te gaan met de ander.

Gijs is a 42 year old man that lives in Nijmegen. Studies have shown that imbalances in hormone levels can cause social aggression. Gijs sometimes suffers from impulsive aggression, which is a subtype of social aggression. Describe which hormones regulate this and whether their levels are high or low in Gijs, do this according to the dual-hormone serotonergic hypothesis?

Antwoord: high testosterone, low cortisol.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

Affective Science and Psychopathology

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