AGGRESSOTYPE/ MATRICS

Aggression, ADHD, HKSSV, CU, subtyping

Stichting Katholieke Universiteit, Netherlands

Ecole Polytechnique federale de Lausanne, Switzerland

Istituto superior di Sanita, Italy

Genoway S.A., France

King's College London, United Kingdom

Central Institute for Mental Health Mannheim, Germany

Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen, Netherlands

University of Exeter, United Kingdom

Universita degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy

neuroConn GmbH, Germany

University of Ulm, Germany

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Montpellier, France

Phenosys GmbH, Germany

Concentris Research Management GmbH, Germany

Consorci Institut d'Investigacions Biomediques August Pi i Sunyer, Spain

Servicio Madrileno de Salud, Spain

Certain Indexes Ltd, United Kingdom

Drug Target ID BV, Netherlands

01.03.2014-28.02.2019

Children and adolescents who suffer from social behaviour disorders show pronounced aggressive behaviour patterns and/or persistent defiant behaviour.

A distinction is made between the following forms of aggression:

• uncontrolled, emotionally influenced "impulsive aggression"
• targeted and planned "instrumentalised aggression"

and

• aggression in the absence of social emotions ("callous unemotional (CU) traits")

These different forms of aggression are each based on different specific contexts. A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms (genetic, cognitive and neurobiological) is urgently needed in order to develop therapies specifically geared to the respective forms of aggression.

As part of the AGGRESSOTYPE and MATRICS project, both children (8-12 years) and adolescents (13-18 years) with social behaviour disorders and healthy control subjects of the same age groups are being comprehensively examined and their behaviour assigned to various defined subtypes.

The project is dedicated to so-called translational research, i.e. the intention is to intertwine clinical and basic research in order to allow the results obtained in each case to be utilised mutually in the sense of a deeper understanding.

The clinical studies include questionnaires, a clinical interview and a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measurement, which is used to visualise changes in brain metabolism during the performance of various neuropsychological tests. Various laboratory tests are also carried out.

Some study centres carry out additional intervention studies, i.e. the participants receive so-called neuro-/biofeedback therapy following the examinations.

In addition, specially developed software ("machine/Bayesian learning") is used to develop predictions with regard to the continued existence of aggressive behaviour into adulthood with the help of the existing extensive pool of data.

In Ulm, 22 children and adolescents took part in the study (a total of approx. 270 participants at nine different locations in six European countries).

Recruitment and data collection has been completed in Ulm.

European Union's Seventh Framework Programme/ 7th EU Research Framework Programme