Functional activity of brain structures and predisposition to aggression in patients with lingering diseases of the CNS

The relationships of unconscious aggression (according to the Hand Test) with regional glucose metabolic rates in the brain (estimated using positron emission tomography) have been analyzed in patients with multiple sclerosis. It has been shown that an increased proneness to open aggression (unconscious aggression) in patients with multiple sclerosis is mainly related to reduced functioning of different areas of the frontal lobes of the brain on the left and with changes in glucose metabolic rate in the structures of the limbic system of the left and right hemispheres. An enhanced unconscious aggression is accompanied by a decrease in the glucose metabolic rate in some areas of Broca’s convolution and the middle frontal gyrus on the left.