Objective: The risk for conduct disorder (CD) is markedly increased in children with specific temperament dimensions. Here, we investigated whether adverse temperament factors might contribute to an impairment in neural mechanisms underlying the regulation of aggressive behaviour.
Method: Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 13 male adolescents with CD aged 9 to 14 years and in 14 healthy age and sex-matched control subjects at 1.5T. During scanning, subjects looked at pictures from the International Affective Picture System with neutral or strong negative emotional valence. Temperament was assessed using the German version of the Junior Temperament and Character Inventory. In addition, behavioural control strategies (Wisconsin Card Sorting, Four Pack Card Playing Task) and sociomoral reasoning (Sociomoral Reflection Measure Short Form) were tested to behaviourally characterise the study groups.
Results: When comparing CD patients with healthy controls, we found reduced activation in the right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in response to negative affective pictures. The temperament dimension 'novelty seeking' was a significant predictor for ACC responsiveness to affective pictures as revealed by a stepwise multiple regression analysis (beta=-0.53, p<0.01). Moreover, individuals with high 'novelty seeking' scores chose more disadvantageous strategies in the Four Pack Card Playing Task (p<0.05) and were characterised by a lower level of sociomoral reasoning (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The results of this study provide a link between temperament factors and neural correlates of emotion processing in adolesecents with conduct disorder.