Biophysical Pathways of Aggression: Understanding Neural Activation and Physiological Arousal Patterns

Abstract

Aggression is increasingly recognized as a multisystem biophysical process arising from dynamic interactions between neural activation patterns and physiological arousal responses. This study investigates the integrated pathways underlying aggression by combining a conceptual neuroscience framework with a simulated multimodal dataset reflecting neural, autonomic, and endocrine activity. Simulated findings showed that heightened amygdala activation, reduced prefrontal cortex (PFC) regulation, and weakened amygdala–PFC connectivity significantly predicted aggressive tendencies. Physiological indicators including low heart rate variability (HRV), elevated electrodermal activity (EDA), and increased cortisol reactivity also contributed uniquely to aggression. The integrated biophysical model accounted for 58% of the variance in aggression, demonstrating stronger explanatory power than neural-only or physiology-only models. These results highlight that aggression emerges from concurrent dysregulation across limbic, regulatory, and autonomic systems. The study underscores the importance of multimodal assessment and integrated intervention strategies targeting both neural regulation and physiological arousal management. Future research should incorporate real-time neural–autonomic measures to validate these findings and further clarify the biological mechanisms driving aggressive behavior.