Anger under Control: Neural Correlates of Frustration as a Function of Trait Aggression

Abstract

Antisocial behavior and aggression are prominent symptoms in several psychiatric disorders including antisocial personality disorder. An established precursor to aggression is a frustrating event, which can elicit anger or exasperation, thereby prompting aggressive responses. While some studies have investigated the neural correlates of frustration and aggression, examination of their relation to trait aggression in healthy populations are rare. Based on a screening of 550 males, we formed two extreme groups, one including individuals reporting high (n=21) and one reporting low (n=18) trait aggression. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 3T, all participants were put through a frustration task comprising unsolvable anagrams of German nouns. Despite similar behavioral performance, males with high trait aggression reported higher ratings of negative affect and anger after the frustration task. Moreover, they showed relatively decreased activation in the frontal brain regions and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) as well as relatively less amygdala activation in response to frustration. Our findings indicate distinct frontal and limbic processing mechanisms following frustration modulated by trait aggression. In response to a frustrating event, HA individuals show some of the personality characteristics and neural processing patterns observed in abnormally aggressive populations. Highlighting the impact of aggressive traits on the behavioral and neural responses to frustration in non-psychiatric extreme groups can facilitate further characterization of neural dysfunctions underlying psychiatric disorders that involve abnormal frustration processing and aggression.

Pediatric Irritability: A Systems Neuroscience Approach

“…Thus, some studies use relatively simple paradigms to assess basic reward learning or cognitive control functions in irritable youth, while others use more complex paradigms that model FNR directly. In the latter, frustration is induced by rigged games or unsolvable puzzles that withhold an expected reward, and investigators report associations between irritability and the degree of frustration induced by the task [62,73–75]. These studies typically find associations between irritability and dysfunction in regions mediating executive attention and reward processing.…”

“…For example, in a study using functional near infrared spectroscopy imaging in a sample of preschool children, decreased lateral PFC activity was associated with increased frustration tolerance [76]. In older youth, studies of frustration during fMRI or magnetoencephalography show associations between irritability and ACC, striatal, medial PFC, parietal and amygdala activity [73–75, 77] (Figure 3). Somewhat unexpectedly, in two fMRI studies irritability is associated with decreased amygdala activation during frustration [74,75].…”

“…In older youth, studies of frustration during fMRI or magnetoencephalography show associations between irritability and ACC, striatal, medial PFC, parietal and amygdala activity [73–75, 77] (Figure 3). Somewhat unexpectedly, in two fMRI studies irritability is associated with decreased amygdala activation during frustration [74,75]. However, the time course of the frustrative response can be prolonged, complicating the interpretation of baseline activity.…”

Functional brain changes underlying irritability in premanifest Huntington's disease

“…The neural circuitry underlying anger experience in normal subjects comprises a distributed set of cortical and subcortical regions, of which the pulvinar, cingulate cortex, lenticular nucleus, insula, frontal cortices, cerebellum, and (para)hippocampal regions have been consistently reported [Damasio and Carvalho, 2013;Denson et al, 2009;Fabiansson et al, 2012;Pawliczek et al, 2013;Vytal and Hamann, 2010]. We, therefore, measured brain activation associated with feelings of anger in preHD and gene-negative controls from HD families (Gene-Neg Ctrls).…”

What makes you tic? Translational approaches to study the role of stress and contextual triggers in Tourette syndrome

“…Psychological experiences of frustration may generate anger and aggressive behaviors (Pawliczek et al, 2013). Aggression and conduct disorder has been frequently associated with TS (Comings and Comings, 1987; Wand et al, 1993; Dehning et al, 2015; Kano et al, 2015).…”