Looking for Trouble? Processing of Physical and Social Threat Words in Impulsive and Premeditated Aggression

The present study used the P3 component of the event-related potential to investigate attentional bias in the processing of threatening information in physically aggressive men. Results of a modified oddball task involving physical and social threat words revealed a pattern of processing in nonaggressive controls characterized by enhanced P3 amplitude to both categories of threat words as compared to neutral target words. In contrast, both impulsive and premeditated aggressors showed P3 amplitudes that were relatively equal across physical threat, social threat, and neutral target words, indicating that they processed threat cues as if they were neutral. This may indicate less efficient processing of threat cues in particular, and abnormal processing of affective stimuli in general.