@article {366, title = {Teacher-rated aggression and co-occurring behaviors and emotional problems among schoolchildren in four population-based European cohorts}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {16}, year = {2021}, pages = {e0238667}, abstract = {

Aggressive behavior in school is an ongoing concern. The current focus is on specific manifestations such as bullying, but the behavior is broad and heterogenous. Children spend a substantial amount of time in school, but their behaviors in the school setting tend to be less well characterized than at home. Because aggression may index multiple behavioral problems, we used three validated instruments to assess means, correlations and gender differences of teacher-rated aggressive behavior with co-occurring externalizing/internalizing problems and social behavior in 39,936 schoolchildren aged 7-14 from 4 population-based cohorts from Finland, the Netherlands, and the UK. Correlations of aggressive behavior were high with all other externalizing problems (r: 0.47-0.80) and lower with internalizing problems (r: 0.02-0.39). A negative association was observed with prosocial behavior (r: -0.33 to -0.54). Mean levels of aggressive behavior differed significantly by gender. Despite the higher mean levels of aggressive behavior in boys, the correlations were notably similar for boys and girls (e.g., aggressive-hyperactivity correlations: 0.51-0.75 boys, 0.47-0.70 girls) and did not vary greatly with respect to age, instrument or cohort. Thus, teacher-rated aggressive behavior rarely occurs in isolation; boys and girls with problems of aggressive behavior likely require help with other behavioral and emotional problems. Important to note, higher aggressive behavior is not only associated with higher amounts of other externalizing and internalizing problems but also with lower levels of prosocial behavior.

}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0238667}, author = {Whipp, Alyce M and Vuoksimaa, Eero and Bolhuis, Koen and de Zeeuw, Eveline L and Korhonen, Tellervo and Mauri, Matteo and Pulkkinen, Lea and Rimfeld, Kaili and Rose, Richard J and van Beijsterveldt, Catharina Toos E M and Bartels, Meike and Plomin, Robert and Tiemeier, Henning and Kaprio, Jaakko and Boomsma, Dorret I} } @article {347, title = {The trans-ancestral genomic architecture of glycemic traits}, journal = {Nature Genetics}, volume = {53}, year = {2021}, pages = {840{\textendash}860}, abstract = {

Glycemic traits are used to diagnose and monitor type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic health. To date, most genetic studies of glycemic traits have focused on individuals of European ancestry. Here we aggregated genome-wide association studies comprising up to 281,416 individuals without diabetes (30\% non-European ancestry) for whom fasting glucose, 2-h glucose after an oral glucose challenge, glycated hemoglobin and fasting insulin data were available. Trans-ancestry and single-ancestry meta-analyses identified 242 loci (99 novel; P \< 5 $\times$ 10-8), 80\% of which had no significant evidence of between-ancestry heterogeneity. Analyses restricted to individuals of European ancestry with equivalent sample size would have led to 24 fewer new loci. Compared with single-ancestry analyses, equivalent-sized trans-ancestry fine-mapping reduced the number of estimated variants in 99\% credible sets by a median of 37.5\%. Genomic-feature, gene-expression and gene-set analyses revealed distinct biological signatures for each trait, highlighting different underlying biological pathways. Our results increase our understanding of diabetes pathophysiology by using trans-ancestry studies for improved power and resolution.

}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-021-00852-9}, author = {Chen, Ji and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Marenne, Ga{\"e}lle and Varshney, Arushi and Corbin, Laura J and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Willems, Sara M and Wu, Ying and Zhang, Xiaoshuai and Horikoshi, Momoko and Boutin, Thibaud S and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Waage, Johannes and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Chan, Kei Hang Katie and Yao, Jie and Anasanti, Mila D and Chu, Audrey Y and Claringbould, Annique and Heikkinen, Jani and Hong, Jaeyoung and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Huo, Shaofeng and Kaakinen, Marika A and Louie, Tin and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Moreno-Macias, Hortensia and Ndungu, Anne and Nelson, Sarah C and Nolte, Ilja M and North, Kari E and Raulerson, Chelsea K and Ray, Debashree and Rohde, Rebecca and Rybin, Denis and Schurmann, Claudia and Sim, Xueling and Southam, Lorraine and Stewart, Isobel D and Wang, Carol A and Wang, Yujie and Wu, Peitao and Zhang, Weihua and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Appel, Emil V R and Bielak, Lawrence F and Brody, Jennifer A and Burtt, No{\"e}l P and Cabrera, Claudia P and Cade, Brian E and Chai, Jin Fang and Chai, Xiaoran and Chang, Li-Ching and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Chen, Brian H and Chitrala, Kumaraswamy Naidu and Chiu, Yen-Feng and de Haan, Hugoline G and Delgado, Graciela E and Demirkan, Ayse and Duan, Qing and Engmann, Jorgen and Fatumo, Segun A and Gay{\'a}n, Javier and Giulianini, Franco and Gong, Jung Ho and Gustafsson, Stefan and Hai, Yang and Hartwig, Fernando P and He, Jing and Heianza, Yoriko and Huang, Tao and Huerta-Chagoya, Alicia and Hwang, Mi Yeong and Jensen, Richard A and Kawaguchi, Takahisa and Kentistou, Katherine A and Kim, Young Jin and Kleber, Marcus E and Kooner, Ishminder K and Lai, Shuiqing and Lange, Leslie A and Langefeld, Carl D and Lauzon, Marie and Li, Man and Ligthart, Symen and Liu, Jun and Loh, Marie and Long, Jirong and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Mangino, Massimo and Marzi, Carola and Montasser, May E and Nag, Abhishek and Nakatochi, Masahiro and Noce, Damia and Noordam, Raymond and Pistis, Giorgio and Preuss, Michael and Raffield, Laura and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Rich, Stephen S and Robertson, Neil R and Rueedi, Rico and Ryan, Kathleen and Sanna, Serena and Saxena, Richa and Schraut, Katharina E and Sennblad, Bengt and Setoh, Kazuya and Smith, Albert V and Spars{\o}, Thomas and Strawbridge, Rona J and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Tan, Jingyi and Trompet, Stella and van den Akker, Erik and van der Most, Peter J and Verweij, Niek and Vogel, Mandy and Wang, Heming and Wang, Chaolong and Wang, Nan and Warren, Helen R and Wen, Wanqing and Wilsgaard, Tom and Wong, Andrew and Wood, Andrew R and Xie, Tian and Zafarmand, Mohammad Hadi and Zhao, Jing-Hua and Zhao, Wei and Amin, Najaf and Arzumanyan, Zorayr and Astrup, Arne and Bakker, Stephan J L and Baldassarre, Damiano and Beekman, Marian and Bergman, Richard N and Bertoni, Alain and Bl{\"u}her, Matthias and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bornstein, Stefan R and Bowden, Donald W and Cai, Qiuyin and Campbell, Archie and Campbell, Harry and Chang, Yi Cheng and de Geus, Eco J C and Dehghan, Abbas and Du, Shufa and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Farmaki, Aliki Eleni and Fr\aanberg, Mattias and Fuchsberger, Christian and Gao, Yutang and Gjesing, Anette P and Goel, Anuj and Han, Sohee and Hartman, Catharina A and Herder, Christian and Hicks, Andrew A and Hsieh, Chang-Hsun and Hsueh, Willa A and Ichihara, Sahoko and Igase, Michiya and Ikram, M Arfan and Johnson, W Craig and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and Joshi, Peter K and Kalyani, Rita R and Kandeel, Fouad R and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Khor, Chiea Chuen and Kiess, Wieland and Kolcic, Ivana and Kuulasmaa, Teemu and Kuusisto, Johanna and L{\"a}ll, Kristi and Lam, Kelvin and Lawlor, Deborah A and Lee, Nanette R and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Li, Honglan and Lifelines Cohort Study and Lin, Shih-Yi and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Jianjun and Lorenzo, Carlos and Matsubara, Tatsuaki and Matsuda, Fumihiko and Mingrone, Geltrude and Mooijaart, Simon and Moon, Sanghoon and Nabika, Toru and Nadkarni, Girish N and Nadler, Jerry L and Nelis, Mari and Neville, Matt J and Norris, Jill M and Ohyagi, Yasumasa and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Polasek, Ozren and Qi, Qibin and Raven, Dennis and Reilly, Dermot F and Reiner, Alex and Rivideneira, Fernando and Roll, Kathryn and Rudan, Igor and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Sandow, Kevin and Sattar, Naveed and Sch{\"u}rmann, Annette and Shi, Jinxiu and Stringham, Heather M and Taylor, Kent D and Teslovich, Tanya M and Thuesen, Betina and Timmers, Paul R H J and Tremoli, Elena and Tsai, Michael Y and Uitterlinden, Andre and van Dam, Rob M and van Heemst, Diana and van Hylckama Vlieg, Astrid and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Vangipurapu, Jagadish and Vestergaard, Henrik and Wang, Tao and Willems van Dijk, Ko and Zemunik, Tatijana and Abecasis, Gon\c calo R and Adair, Linda S and Aguilar-Salinas, Carlos Alberto and Alarc{\'o}n-Riquelme, Marta E and An, Ping and Aviles-Santa, Larissa and Becker, Diane M and Beilin, Lawrence J and Bergmann, Sven and Bisgaard, Hans and Black, Corri and Boehnke, Michael and Boerwinkle, Eric and B{\"o}hm, Bernhard O and B{\o}nnelykke, Klaus and Boomsma, D I and Bottinger, Erwin P and Buchanan, Thomas A and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Caulfield, Mark J and Chambers, John C and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Collins, Francis S and Correa, Adolfo and Cucca, Francesco and de Silva, H Janaka and Dedoussis, George and Elmst\aahl, S{\"o}lve and Evans, Michele K and Ferrannini, Ele and Ferrucci, Luigi and Florez, Jose C and Franks, Paul W and Frayling, Timothy M and Froguel, Philippe and Gigante, Bruna and Goodarzi, Mark O and Gordon-Larsen, Penny and Grallert, Harald and Grarup, Niels and Grimsgaard, Sameline and Groop, Leif and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Guo, Xiuqing and Hamsten, Anders and Hansen, Torben and Hayward, Caroline and Heckbert, Susan R and Horta, Bernardo L and Huang, Wei and Ingelsson, Erik and James, Pankow S and Jarvelin, Marjo-Ritta and Jonas, Jost B and Jukema, J Wouter and Kaleebu, Pontiano and Kaplan, Robert and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kato, Norihiro and Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, Sirkka M and Kim, Bong-Jo and Kivimaki, Mika and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kooner, Jaspal S and K{\"o}rner, Antje and Kovacs, Peter and Kuh, Diana and Kumari, Meena and Kutalik, Zoltan and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Launer, Lenore J and Leander, Karin and Li, Huaixing and Lin, Xu and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia and Liu, Simin and Loos, Ruth J F and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Mahajan, Anubha and Metspalu, Andres and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Mori, Trevor A and Munroe, Patricia B and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Ong, Ken K and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmer, Colin N A and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pedersen, Oluf and Pennell, Craig E and Porteous, David J and Pramstaller, Peter P and Province, Michael A and Psaty, Bruce M and Qi, Lu and Raffel, Leslie J and Rauramaa, Rainer and Redline, Susan and Ridker, Paul M and Rosendaal, Frits R and Saaristo, Timo E and Sandhu, Manjinder and Saramies, Jouko and Schneiderman, Neil and Schwarz, Peter and Scott, Laura J and Selvin, Elizabeth and Sever, Peter and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Slagboom, P Eline and Small, Kerrin S and Smith, Blair H and Snieder, Harold and Sofer, Tamar and S{\o}rensen, Thorkild I A and Spector, Tim D and Stanton, Alice and Steves, Claire J and Stumvoll, Michael and Sun, Liang and Tabara, Yasuharu and Tai, E Shyong and Timpson, Nicholas J and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tusie, Teresa and Uusitupa, Matti and van der Harst, Pim and van Duijn, Cornelia and Vitart, Veronique and Vollenweider, Peter and Vrijkotte, Tanja G M and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Walker, Mark and Wang, Ya X and Wareham, Nick J and Watanabe, Richard M and Watkins, Hugh and Wei, Wen B and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilson, James F and Wong, Tien-Yin and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Xiang, Anny H and Yanek, Lisa R and Yengo, Lo\"{\i}c and Yokota, Mitsuhiro and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Zheng, Wei and Zonderman, Alan B and Rotter, Jerome I and Gloyn, Anna L and McCarthy, Mark I and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Meigs, James B and Scott, Robert A and Prokopenko, Inga and Leong, Aaron and Liu, Ching-Ti and Parker, Stephen C J and Mohlke, Karen L and Langenberg, Claudia and Wheeler, Eleanor and Morris, Andrew P and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Meta-Analysis of Glucose and Insulin-related Traits Consortium (MAGIC)} } @article {318, title = {Testing bidirectional associations between childhood aggression and BMI: Results from three cohorts}, journal = {Obesity (Silver Spring)}, volume = {27}, year = {2019}, pages = {822{\textendash}829}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the prospective, potentially bidirectional association of aggressive behavior with BMI and body composition across childhood in three population-based cohorts.

METHODS: Repeated measures of aggression and BMI were available from the Generation R Study between ages 6 and 10 years (N = 3,974), the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) between ages 7 and 10 years (N = 10,328), and the Swedish Twin Study of Child and Adolescent Development (TCHAD) between ages 9 and 14 years (N = 1,462). In all samples, aggression was assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist. Fat mass and fat-free mass were available in the Generation R Study. Associations were examined with cross-lagged modeling.

RESULTS: Aggressive behavior at baseline was associated with higher BMI at follow-up in the Generation R Study ($\beta$ = 0.02, 95\% CI: 0.00 to 0.04), in NTR ($\beta$ = 0.04, 95\% CI: 0.02 to 0.06), and in TCHAD ($\beta$ = 0.03, 95\% CI: -0.02 to 0.07). Aggressive behavior was prospectively associated with higher fat mass ($\beta$ = 0.03, 95\% CI: 0.01 to 0.05) but not fat-free mass. There was no evidence that BMI or body composition preceded aggressive behavior.

CONCLUSIONS: More aggressive behavior was prospectively associated with higher BMI and fat mass. This suggests that aggression contributes to the obesity problem, and future research should study whether these behavioral pathways to childhood obesity are modifiable.

}, doi = {10.1002/oby.22419}, author = {Derks, Ivonne P M and Bolhuis, Koen and Yalcin, Zeynep and Gaillard, Romy and Hillegers, Manon H J and Larsson, Henrik and Lundstr{\"o}m, Sebastian and Lichtenstein, Paul and van Beijsterveldt, Catharina E M and Bartels, Meike and Boomsma, Dorret I and Tiemeier, Henning and Jansen, Pauline W} } @article {331, title = {Tracking of voluntary exercise behaviour over the lifespan}, journal = {International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity}, volume = {16}, year = {2019}, pages = {17}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The aim of many physical activity interventions is to develop life-long habits of regular exercise and sports activities in leisure time. Previous studies that assessed tracking (i.e. the stability of a trait over the lifespan) of leisure time exercise behaviour across various parts of the life span have treated it as a uniform construct by summing all types of leisure time exercise activities into a single summary score for the total volume of exercise. This study provides new insight by additionally determining tracking across leisure time exercise activities in six different domains: (1) team-based versus solitary activities, (2) competitive versus non-competitive activities, and (3) externally paced versus internally paced activities. We also assessed which of the domains of exercise activities best predicted total volume of exercise at follow-up.

METHODS: A large dataset (N = 43,889) from the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) was used to analyse the tracking of exercise behaviour over time. Using this dataset, we were able to examine tracking as a function of baseline age (8 to 80 years) and tracking duration (2 to 22-year follow-up), taking into account sex differences, using generalized estimating equations.

RESULTS: Two-year tracking coefficients are moderate to high for total volume of exercise across ages at baseline, ranging from .38 to .77 with a median of .57. Tracking coefficients tend to decrease as the distance to follow-up increases, down to a median of .38 for the 22-year tracking coefficients. The patterns of tracking were largely domain-independent and were largely similar for solitary, competitive, non-competitive, externally and internally paced activities. With the exception of team-based activities, tracking was seen to increase as a function of baseline age. Cross-domain tracking did not favour any specific domain of exercise activity as the best predictor for total volume of exercise behaviour and this was true at all baseline ages.

CONCLUSION: We conclude that exercise behaviour is moderately to highly stable across the life span. In particular in adulthood, where the tracking of exercise mimics that of a classical behavioural trait like personality. This stability reinforces existing evidence that exercise habits are hard to change, but at the same time suggests that successful intervention leading to the adoption of exercise habits will tend to last.

}, keywords = {Behavioural trends, Competitive exercise, Leisure time physical activity, Lifespan, Longitudinal stability, Team exercise}, doi = {10.1186/s12966-019-0779-4}, author = {van der Zee, Matthijs D and van der Mee, Denise and Bartels, Meike and de Geus, Eco J C} } @article {170, title = {Targeting aggression in severe mental illness: the predictive role of genetic, epigenetic, and metabolomic markers}, journal = {Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry}, volume = {77,}, year = {2017}, month = {07/2017}, pages = {32{\textendash}41}, abstract = {

Human aggression is a complex and widespread social behavior that is overrepresented in individuals affected by severe mental illness (SMI), such as schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A substantial proportion of the liability threshold for aggressive behavior is determined by genetic factors, and environmental moderators might precipitate the manifestation of this behavioral phenotype through modification of gene expression via the epigenetic machinery. These specific alterations in the genetic and epigenetic make-up of aggressive individuals might determine distinct biochemical signatures detectable through metabolomics. An additional pathophysiological component playing a role in aggressive behavior might be determined by alterations of gut microbiota. Here, we present a selective review of human data on genetic, epigenetic, and metabolomic markers of aggressive behavior in SMI, discussing also the available evidence on the role of microbiome alterations. Clinical implication of these evidences, as well as future perspectives, will be discussed.

}, doi = {http://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2017.03.024}, author = {Mirko Manchia and Vassilios Fanos} }