Abstract
Despite aggression being a hallmark of adolescent conduct disorder (CD), its neurocognitive mechanisms are not fully understood. This study investigated neurocognitive functioning in adolescents with CD versus healthy controls, specifically examining its link to aggression severity. Sixty male adolescents aged 13 to 18 years, including 30 individuals with CD and 30 healthy controls matched for age and screened for normal intellectual functioning, were assessed using tasks from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). Aggression severity was evaluated using the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Adolescents with CD showed significantly higher aggression levels and poorer performance on several neurocognitive measures compared with controls. In addition, higher aggression scores were associated with poorer performance across multiple cognitive domains in the overall sample, including attentional performance, visual memory, decision related measures, and emotion recognition accuracy. The association between aggression severity and neurocognitive differences highlights the clinical relevance of neurocognitive assessment in characterizing CD.