Neural correlates of antisocial behavior: the victim’s perspective

An antisocial behavior entails acts without taking into account the basic rights of others and may represent a threaten to the social system. The neural processes associated with experiencing antisocial behavior (social victimization) are still unknown. In this study, we used a social interaction task during functional magnetic resonance imaging( to investigate the neural bases of social victimization. Brain activation and functional connectivity (FC) were estimated and correlated with Big-5-Questionnaire, TEMPS-M and Questionnaire of Daily-Frustration scores. During social victimization, right occipital and temporal cortex showed increased activation. The temporal cortex had also reduced FC with homotopic areas. Compared to prosocial condition, social victimization showed hyperactivation of the dorsomedial- and lateral-prefrontal cortex, putamen, and thalamus and increased FC of medialfrontal-striato-thalamic areas with ventrolateral-prefrontal cortex, insula, dorsal cingulate, postcentral gyrus. Lastly, neuroticism, irritable temperament, and frustration scores were positively correlated with social victimization activations. Our findings suggest that social victimization engages a set of regions associated with salience, emotional processing, and regulation and the extent of these responses can be modulated by temperamental and personality traits. Overall, these results can be interpreted as following the stages of the temporal need-threat model for ostracism, thus expanding this model to more general antisocial behavior