Neuropsychological performance on tests of frontal-lobe functioning and aggressive behavior in men

The authors tested the relationship between frontal-lobe functioning and physical aggression in young men in a laboratory setting. Seventy-two men completed two putative neuropsychological measures of frontal-lobe functioning--the Self-Ordered Pointing (SOP) Task and the Conditional Association Task (CAT)--and an abbreviated version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale--Revised. Aggression was measured with a modified version of the Taylor reaction-time aggression paradigm, whereby electric shocks are received from and administered to a fictitious "opponent" during a competitive task within high- and low-provocation conditions. High and low provocation levels were defined by the intensity of shocks the subjects received. Results demonstrated that aggression was significantly related to performance on the CAT but not the SOP. The findings are discussed with regard to the hypothesized link between frontal-lobe functioning and aggressive behavior.