Elevated Aggression and Reduced White Matter Integrity in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A DTI Study
Author
Dailey, Natalie S.Smith, Ryan
Bajaj, Sahil
Alkozei, Anna

Gottschlich, Melissa K.
Raikes, Adam C.
Satterfield, Brieann C.
Killgore, William D. S.
Affiliation
Univ Arizona, Coll Med, Dept PsychiatIssue Date
2018-06-27Keywords
mild traumatic brain injuryaggression
white matter integrity
diffusion tensor imaging
corpus callosum
post-concussive symptoms
Metadata
Show full item recordPublisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SACitation
Dailey NS, Smith R, Bajaj S, Alkozei A, Gottschlich MK, Raikes AC, Satterfield BC and Killgore WDS (2018) Elevated Aggression and Reduced White Matter Integrity in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A DTI Study. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 12:118. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00118Rights
© 2018 Dailey, Smith, Bajaj, Alkozei, Gottschlich, Raikes, Satterfield and Killgore. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) remains the most commonly reported head injury in the United States, and is associated with a wide range of post-concussive symptoms including physical, cognitive and affective impairments. Elevated aggression has been documented in mTBI; however, the neural mechanisms associated with aggression at the chronic stage of recovery remain poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated the association between white matter integrity and aggression in mTBI using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Twenty-six age-matched adults participated in the study, including 16 healthy controls (HCs) and 10 individuals in the chronic stage of recovery (either 6-months or 12 months post-mTBI). Psychological measures of aggression included the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire and the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI). Axonal pathways implicated in affective processing were studied, including the corpus callosum, anterior thalamic radiation, cingulum and uncinate fasciculus, and measures of white matter integrity included fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), radial diffusivity (RD) and axial diffusivity (AD). We found that adults with mTBI in the chronic stage of recovery had higher levels aggression. Individuals with mTBI also had greater RD in the corpus callosum compared to HCs, indicating reduced fiber integrity. Furthermore, we observed a significant association between reduced white matter integrity in the corpus callosum and greater aggression. Our findings provide additional evidence for underlying neuroanatomical mechanisms of aggression, although future research will be necessary to characterize the specific relationship between aggression and the white matter pathways we identified.Note
Open access journal.ISSN
1662-5153PubMed ID
30013466Version
Final published versionSponsors
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs; Defense Health Agency J9, Research and Development Directorate, through the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) [W81XWH-12-0386]Additional Links
https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00118/fullhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00118/supplementary-material/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00118.s001
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00118
Scopus Count
Collections
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © 2018 Dailey, Smith, Bajaj, Alkozei, Gottschlich, Raikes, Satterfield and Killgore. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).
Related articles
- White matter integrity and cognition in mild traumatic brain injury following motor vehicle accident.
- Authors: Xiong K, Zhu Y, Zhang Y, Yin Z, Zhang J, Qiu M, Zhang W
- Issue date: 2014 Dec 3
- White Matter Integrity Relates to Cognition in Service Members and Veterans after Complicated Mild, Moderate, and Severe Traumatic Brain Injury, But Not Uncomplicated Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.
- Authors: Lippa SM, Yeh PH, Ollinger J, Brickell TA, French LM, Lange RT
- Issue date: 2023 Feb
- White matter integrity and cognition in chronic traumatic brain injury: a diffusion tensor imaging study.
- Authors: Kraus MF, Susmaras T, Caughlin BP, Walker CJ, Sweeney JA, Little DM
- Issue date: 2007 Oct
- Loss of Consciousness Is Related to White Matter Injury in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.
- Authors: Wilde EA, Li X, Hunter JV, Narayana PA, Hasan K, Biekman B, Swank P, Robertson C, Miller E, McCauley SR, Chu ZD, Faber J, McCarthy J, Levin HS
- Issue date: 2016 Nov 15
- Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) Correlates of Self-Reported Sleep Quality and Depression Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.
- Authors: Raikes AC, Bajaj S, Dailey NS, Smith RS, Alkozei A, Satterfield BC, Killgore WDS
- Issue date: 2018