Biology subjects

De Brito, S. A.

Publications and source records attributed to De Brito, S. A..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

The neural orchestra of aggression: neurogenetic network mapping of human aggressiveness

Over the last century, researchers have successfully mapped the core neural circuitry underlying aggression in non-human animals. In contrast, advances in human neuroimaging have been hindered by persistent challenges with reproducibility. Here, we adopted a recently developed network-based framework to test the hypothesis that seemingly heterogeneous findings in aggression research converge on a common brain network. We conducted network mapping to integrate functional and structural imaging findings of human aggression across 39 and 31 samples, respectively, revealing substantial overlap across both functional (up to 84%) and structural (up to 74%) imaging modalities. Strikingly, we found that these networks were largely explained by the expression of genes implicated in genome-wide association studies of aggression and related phenotypes. By integrating network-based approaches of neuroimaging data with gene expression, our work provides a reliable and comprehensive account of the neurogenetic architecture underlying aggressive behavior, resolving longstanding discrepancies in its neurobiology.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Mapping the Structural Brain Network of Psychopathy: Convergent Evidence from Humans and Chimpanzees

Psychopathy, a condition characterized by profound emotional and interpersonal deficits, has long been hypothesized to stem, in part, from structural brain abnormalities. Yet neuroimaging findings remain inconsistent. To address these discrepancies, we applied a novel structural network mapping approach combined with cross-species analyses. Traditional meta-analysis revealed weak spatial convergence across 20 samples. Nevertheless, we found that heterogeneous peak locations coalesced into a distributed set of regions encompassing the insular, and prefrontal cortices. This network overlapped strikingly (r = .93) with a lesion-derived network causally linked to antisocial behaviour, and variation within it predicted volumetric risk scores in both humans (n = 107, R{superscript 2} = .16) and chimpanzees (n = 148, R{superscript 2} = .21). These findings suggest that psychopathy reflects abnormalities across a collection of distributed regions rather than isolated areas, providing a unifying explanation for decades of inconsistent results and advancing our understanding of its clinical, biological, and evolutionary bases.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Action initiation and punishment learning differ from childhood to adolescence while reward learning remains stable

Theoretical and empirical accounts suggest that adolescence is associated with heightened reward learning and impulsivity. Experimental tasks and computational models that can dissociate reward learning from the tendency to initiate actions impulsively (action initiation bias) are thus critical to characterise the mechanisms that drive developmental differences. However, existing work has rarely quantified both learning ability and action initiation, or it has tested small samples. Here, using computational modelling of a learning task collected from a large sample (N=742, 9-18 years, 11 countries), we tested differences in reward and punishment learning and action initiation from childhood to adolescence. Computational modelling revealed that whilst punishment learning rates increased with age, reward learning remained stable. In parallel, action initiation biases decreased with age. Results were similar when considering pubertal stage instead of chronological age. We conclude that heightened reward responsivity in adolescence can reflect differences in action initiation rather than enhanced reward learning.

neuroscience↗