以泰勒攻擊作業及腦波檢視青少年暴力行為神經機制

Using the Taylor Aggression Paradigm and Event-Related Potentials to Examine the Neural Mechanisms of Adolescent Aggressive Behavior

青少年暴力犯罪一向是社會所重視的問題，過去研究發現暴力行為與抑制控制歷程發生問題有關。本研究為了解青少年暴力行為的背後生理成因，結合泰勒攻擊作業(Taylor Aggression Paradigm, TAP)與腦波儀，目的是想從有實驗室設計的社會脈絡中，藉由操控「輸贏的比例」以及「懲罰的高低」，引起具有攻擊行為的實驗情境及情緒反應，以了解暴力青少年與一般少年在調控攻擊行為的抑制控制及情緒衝突監控歷程上的差異。本研究的對象包括反應型暴力犯罪青少年（實驗組）、非暴力犯罪青少年（對照組1）以及一般青少年（對照組2）。研究結果發現，實驗組給對手懲罰的平均分數顯著高於對照組1以及對照組2。腦波結果發現，實驗組在決定階段的N2振幅顯著小於兩組對照組，表示抑制控制能力可能較弱，而DRN三組則無顯著差異。結果階段的FRN差異波振幅實驗組與對照組2達到顯著，表示實驗組在情感同理方面能力可能較差，說明暴力青少年在解決認知以及情緒上的衝突，或是評估社會情境來調控抑制的能力，均較一般人弱。

Adolescent violent offending presents an important issue for society to attempt to deal with effectively. This type of behavior is often ascribed to problems with the processes involved in inhibitory control, such that some individuals may have difficulty controlling normally unacceptable actions. In this study, the Taylor Aggression Paradigm and event related potentials were combined to examine the neural mechanisms of adolescent violent behavior by assessing responses of individuals to received punishment. On win trials in this task, individuals can punish their opponent (who is actually computer controlled), whereas they are punished when losing. The proportion of win and loses on the task and the punishment from the opponent are used to cause an aggressive situation and an associated emotional response. Participants included impulsive violent adolescent offenders (experimental group), non-violent adolescent offenders (control group 1) and normal adolescents (control group 2). These groups were selected to allow investigation of the differences between violent and normal adolescents in terms of both inhibitory control and under situations of emotional conflict. Behavioral data showed that the experimental group, when performing the task, gave larger punishments than did control groups 1and 2. The N2 ERP component, which can index inhibition, had a lower amplitude for the experimental group and the feedback related negativity amplitude for this group was also significant higher than that of control group 2. The pattern of results suggests that violent adolescents may have a deficit in solving cognitive and emotional conflict and in evaluating social context for the modification of inhibitory control.