Reward vs. Retaliation—the Role of the Mesocorticolimbic Salience Network in Human Reactive Aggression

Abstract

The propensity for reactive aggression (RA) which occurs in response to provocation has been linked to hyperresponsivity of the mesocorticolimbic reward network in healthy adults. Here, we aim to elucidate the role of the mesocorticolimbic network in clinically significant RA for two competing motivated behaviors, reward-seeking vs. retaliation. 18 male participants performed a variant of the Point-Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP) during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We examined whether RA participants compared with non-aggressive controls would choose to obtain a monetary reward over the opportunity to retaliate against a fictitious opponent, who provoked the participant by randomly stealing money from his earnings. Across all fMRI-PSAP runs, RA individuals vs. controls chose to work harder to earn money but not to retaliate. When engaging in such reward-seeking behavior vs. retaliation in a single fMRI-PSAP run, RA individuals exhibited increased activation in the insular-striatal part of the mesocorticolimbic salience network, and decreased precuneus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex activation compared to controls. Enhanced overall reward-seeking behavior along with an up-regulation of the mesocorticolimbic salience network and a down-regulation of the default-mode network in RA individuals indicate that RA individuals are willing to work more for monetary reward than for retaliation when presented with a choice. Our findings may suggest that the use of positive reinforcement might represent an efficacious intervention approach for the potential reduction of retaliatory behavior in clinically significant RA.

Compulsive Addiction-like Aggressive Behavior in Mice

“…Together, these results and our training-phase results indicate that the act of aggression can be rewarding to some mice, in a manner analogous to that seen in some people under both typical circumstances (6, 31–33) and pathological/clinical circumstances (34, 35). …”

“…Like addictive drugs, aggression can be highly rewarding, pursued despite immediate or long-term adverse consequences (6, 33), and sought anew after lengthy enforced abstinence (7). We take the general commonality of aggression seeking between rodents and humans, and more importantly the shared vulnerability for compulsive addiction-like aggression seeking within a smaller subpopulation in each species, to reflect a biologically conserved correlate of compulsive aggression seeking across species.…”

A neural network for intermale aggression to establish social hierarchy

“…Additionally, we explore features of aggressive behavior which, while they have been previously discussed, they lack a mechanistic understanding. These include a neural basis of hysteresis in aggression 190,261,263,264 , a site in the aggression circuit responsible for conferring a positive valence to aggressive behavior [265][266][267][268][269] , and a node which upon activation elicits maternal aggression and is activated by maternal hormones [270][271][272][273][274] .…”

Nucleus Accumbens Drd1-Expressing Neurons Control Aggression Self-Administration and Aggression Seeking in Mice

“…Aggression is the direct cause of suffering and death for millions of people around the world (Sumner et al, 2015). Like addictive drugs, aggression can be highly rewarding, pursued despite immediate or long-term adverse consequences (Gan et al, 2016;Chester and De-Wall, 2017), and sought anew after lengthy enforced abstinence (Durose et al, 2014). As such, it is not surprising that aggression is commonly comorbid with other neuropsychiatric disorders (Anderson, 2012;Beck et al, 2014).…”