| 摘要: | 研究期間：10108~10207;Emotional deficits have frequently been observed in not only violent but also sexual offenders. Emotion regulation appears to modulate impulse control and decision-making, both of which are involved in committing an aggressive/violent act. Thus, it’s of particular importance to examine the influence of emotion on cognitive functions in offenders as well as normal subjects in order to better understand the etiology of aggression/violence. The main goal of this study is to investigate how emotion affects inhibitory control and decision-making. The major questions addressed in this project include: (1) how emotions influences the process of impulse control; (2) whether or not the effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over pre-supplementary motor area on inhibitory control are predictable by gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) concentrations; as well as (3) how emotion exerts its impacts on decision-making. In line with the issues mentioned above, the following hypotheses are postulated: (1) Emotion effects on inhibitory control: a) negative emotions impair inhibitory control; b) the higher the levels of aggression-related personality are, the more impaired emotional processing and impulse control will be; c) emotion and the gene for monoamine-oxidase-A (MAOA), the so-called aggression candidate gene, interact with the inhibitory control; (2) tDCS effects on inhibitory control: a) tDCS effects on inhibitory control are related to changes of GABA concentrations; b) tDCS effects on inhibitory control vary with MAOA genotypes; and (3) Emotions affect decision-making. Participants will include normal subjects, and juvenile as well as adult prisoners. Various tools will be used to measure the parameters of interest, including personality rating scales, emotional stop signal tasks (SST), decision-making tasks, polygraphs, electroencephalogram (EEG), tDCS, genotyping, as well as magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). The SST is used to assess impulse control in subjects, whereas EEG provides a record of the event-related potentials (ERPs) while they are performing the SST. Subjects’ aggression-related predispositions will be obtained using distinct personality rating scales. The heart rate and electro-dermal activity of subjects will be measured using a polygraph. The genotypes will be determined by extracting DNA samples from subjects’ buccal cells. The changes of GABA levels before and after tDCS will be detected using MRS. The project will be the first systematic study to investigate how emotion regulation modulates inhibitory control and decision making in normal adults, adult offenders and juvenile offenders. The proposed experiments will not only elucidate the behavioral characteristics of emotional effects on the inhibitory control and decision making and the neural mechanisms of these functions but also the possible intervention programs. Furthermore, because of the groups of participants to be investigated, the data will also provide a clear picture of how emotion regulation affects violent behaviors in the offenders then supply with suggestions of feasible criminal prevention programs to the policy makers. |
