She explained that for more than two decades, scientists have studied MAO in relation to aggressive and violent behavior. Joanna S. Fowler, an SNM member, member of the National Academy of Sciences and a senior chemist at Brookhaven, developed a way to tag the MAO A enzyme and study its activity in the brain. "The healthy, nonviolent men who volunteered to do our study had their MAO A brain activity captured by PET, a camera that uses molecules with special tags to map chemical activity in the brain," explained Alia-Klein. The men then answered a questionnaire that mapped their personality profile.
"We discovered that the amount of MAO A activity in the brain of 27 healthy men corresponded to the amount of aggression they reported in the questionnaire," said Alia-Klein. "The less MAO A they had in the brain, the more they answered 'yes' to statements about taking advantage of others and causing them discomfort," she noted. "Although the personality questionnaire gave a complete profile of the men's personalities, only aggressive personality was related to brain MAO A activity -- not other personality dimensions," she emphasized.
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"Our finding corroborates the relevance of brain MAO A in aggressive personality," explained Alia-Klein. "If this model of understanding is tested on individuals who engage in violent behavior (e.g., domestic violence), it could show promise in the future for pharmacological intervention against abnormal violence" she added.
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