Domestic violence is a problem of major proportions in the United States. The majority of studies pertaining to the etiology of domestic violence have focused on psychosocial parameters and given little emphasis to biological factors. During the past year our manuscript, reporting a strong association between respiratory sinus arrhythmia and heart rate in controls but not in domestic violence perpetrators, was published in the J Psychophysiology. We analyzed data obtained from PET imagining and found that perpetrators of domestic violence have decreased glucose metabolism in the hypothalamus compared to controls. Perpetrators also showed decreased correlations in glucose metabolism between several cortical and subcortical structures and the amygdala. These data support our hypothesis that some perpetrators of domestic violence have abnormalities in the structures and pathways that control the expression of fear-induced aggression.
