ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how the aggressive brain is structured, and instead concentrate on how the aggressive brain functions—how neural blood flow waxes and wanes according to environmental pressures. The general aggression model also argues that neurobiological processes related to people’s inner states can affect their aggression. Although it is possible to measure a person’s thoughts, emotions, and arousal using self-report measures, more direct measures of neurobiological processes are possible. The neural correlates of provocation give us great insight into this precursor of aggression, yet they fail to tell us the brain functions while it is being aggressive. The amygdala sits at the frontal terminus of the hippocampus, deep underneath the cortex, and broadly responds to emotionally and otherwise salient features of the environment, particularly to primitive threats such as snakes and angry faces. The chapter shows that neurobiological perspective plays a vital role in aggression theory, research, and prevention.
