The feeling of anger: From brain networks to linguistic expressions.

This review of the neuroscience of anger is part of The Human Affectome Project, where we attempt to map anger and its components (i.e., physiological, cognitive, experiential) to the neuroscience literature (i.e., genetic markers, functional imaging of human brain networks) and to linguistic expressions used to describe anger feelings. Given the ubiquity of anger in both its normative and chronic states, specific language is used in humans to express states of anger. Following a review of the neuroscience literature, we explore the language that is used to convey angry feelings, as well as metaphors reflecting inner states of anger experience. We then discuss whether these linguistic expressions can be mapped on to the neural circuits during anger experience and to distinct components of anger. We also identify relationships between anger components, brain networks, and other affective research relevant to motivational states of dominance and basic needs for safety

On the Nature, Modeling, and Neural Bases of Social Ties

This paper addresses the nature, formalization, and neural bases of (affective) social ties and discusses the relevance of ties for health economics. A social tie is defined as an affective weight attached by an individual to the well-being of another individual (‘utility interdependence’). Ties can be positive or negative, and symmetric or asymmetric between individuals. Characteristic of a social tie, as conceived of here, is that it develops over time under the influence of interaction, in contrast with a trait like altruism. Moreover, a tie is not related to strategic behavior such as reputation formation but seen as generated by affective responses. A formalization is presented together with some supportive evidence from behavioral experiments. This is followed by a discussion of related psychological constructs and the presentation of suggestive neural findings, based on the existing literature. We conclude with some suggestions for future research. Publication forthcoming in 'On the Nature, Modeling and Neural Bases of Social Ties', Daniel E. Houser and Kevin A. McCabe (eds), Neuroeconomics, Advances in Health Economics and Health Services Research, Emerald Insight Publishing

Interpersonal Style Predicts Behavioral Heterogeneity During Economic-Exchange Task Gameplay in Individuals With Social Anxiety

Recent evidence suggests that individuals who exhibit socially anxious (SA) symptoms endorse patterns of maladaptive interpersonal behavior that can be parceled into three subtypes based upon interpersonal circumplex theory: friendly-submissive, hostile-submissive, and hostile-dominant. It remains unclear, however, whether these subtypes translate into observable social behavior in laboratory contexts. I used two economic-exchange tasks, the prisoner’s dilemma game (PDG) and the ultimatum game (UG), as models of domains of social behavior to detect interpersonal differences in a sample of college students (N= 88) who endorsed mild-to-severe levels of SA based upon responses to the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale Self-Report (LSAS-SR). Using a two-step automatic clustering procedure, the sample was divided into three groups according to their responses on the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems – 32 (IIP-32). Interpersonal profiles were constructed for these groups and two of the three expected subtypes were identified (friendly-submissive and hostile-submissive); however, instead of hostile-dominance, friendly-dominance emerged as a potential subtype. Hierarchical and quantile regressions were conducted to examine whether SA severity and interpersonal subtype predicted cooperation and acceptance rates in the PDG and UG respectively. The data revealed that in the PDG, SA severity significantly predicted an increase in cooperation rate, while the interpersonal subtypes did not have a significant effect. However, when analyses included only those individuals who met a clinical cutoff for severe SA (N = 66), SA severity no longer predicted cooperation rates. But friendly-submissiveness predicted cooperation rates exceeding 65% during gameplay, while friendly-dominance predicted a ceiling cooperation rate of 65%. Hostile-submissiveness did not predict variance in cooperation rate. In the UG, the interpersonal subtypes and SA severity did not significantly predict acceptance rate. These findings build upon a burgeoning literature substantiating links between self-reported interpersonal problems and unique interindividual psychopathological presentations. However, improvements in sample recruitment, the implementation of economic-exchange tasks, and data-analytic methods need to be put into practice before stronger assertions can be made concerning the therapeutic relevance of these games as social decision-making paradigms

Always allthe Rage: Anger and its Management

Anger is one of the basic human emotions and every person, almost certainly, has experienced it at least once in their lifetime. Anger arises as a result of a perceived threat, frustration or offense. Neuropsychological research has detected several brain areas responsible for excessive anger expression (e.g., anterior cingulate cortex, insula and amygdala), and poor anger management (e.g., orbital and prefrontal cortexes). Some studies show that neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine also play a significant role in this emotion. Despite its classification as a negative emotion, anger, if properly expressed, can be beneficial to the individual and thus considered as beneficial from an evolutionary standpoint - primarily enabling the angered to resolve conflicts in their favor. If one’s anger, however, interferes with everyday functioning, many people decide to seek professional help to prevent further consequences. Since anger cannot be separated from its social environment, anger management approaches range from pharmacological to cognitive-behavioral agents, relaxation therapy, psychodynamic and other approaches. The importance of adequate anger management is supported by the negative consequences of maladaptive anger coping strategies, most notably hypertension and coronary heart disease, as well as deterioration of social relationships

Development of social feedback processing and responses in childhood:an fMRI test-replication design in two age cohorts

This study investigated behavioral and neural correlates underlying social feedback processing and subsequent aggressive behaviors in childhood in two age cohorts (test sample: n = 509/n = 385 and replication sample: n = 354/n = 195, 7-9 years old). Using a previously validated Social Network Aggression Task, we showed that negative social feedback resulted in most behavioral aggression, followed by less aggression after neutral and least aggression after positive feedback. Receiving positive and negative social feedback was associated with increased activity in the insula, medial prefrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Responding to feedback was associated with additional activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) following positive feedback. This DLPFC activation correlated negatively with aggression. Furthermore, age analyses showed that older children showed larger reductions in aggression following positive feedback and more neural activation in the DLPFC when responding to positive feedback compared to younger children. To assess the robustness of our results, we examined these processes in two independent behavioral/functional magnetic resonance imaging samples using equivalence testing, thereby contributing to replicable reports. Together, these findings demonstrate an important role of social saliency and regulatory processes where regulation of aggression rapidly develops between the ages of 7 and 9 years.</p

Development of social feedback processing and responses in childhood: an fMRI test-replication design in two age cohorts

This study investigated behavioral and neural correlates underlying social feedback processing and subsequent aggressive behaviors in childhood in two age cohorts (test sample: n=509/n=385 and replication sample: n=354/n=195, 7-9 years old). Using a previously validated Social Network Aggression Task (Achterberg et al., 2020), we showed that negative social feedback resulted in most behavioral aggression, followed by less aggression after neutral and least aggression after positive feedback. Receiving positive and negative social feedback was associated with increased activity in the insula, medial prefrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Responding to feedback was associated with additional activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex following positive feedback. This DLPFC activation correlated negatively with aggression. Furthermore, age analyses showed that older children showed larger reductions in aggression following positive feedback and more neural activation in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex when responding to positive feedback compared to younger children. To assess the robustness of our results, we examined these processes in two independent behavioral/fMRI samples using equivalence testing, thereby contributing to replicable reports. Together, these findings demonstrate an important role of social saliency and regulatory processes where regulation of aggression rapidly develops between ages 7-9 years.Pathways through Adolescenc

Structural and functional brain networks of individual differences in trait anger and anger control: An unsupervised machine learning study.

The ability to experience, use and eventually control anger is crucial to maintain well-being and build healthy relationships. Despite its relevance, the neural mechanisms behind individual differences in experiencing and controlling anger are poorly understood. To elucidate these points, we employed an unsupervised machine learning approach based on independent component analysis to test the hypothesis that specific functional and structural networks are associated with individual differences in trait anger and anger control. Structural and functional resting state images of 71 subjects as well as their scores from the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory entered the analyses. At a structural level, the concentration of grey matter in a network including ventromedial temporal areas, posterior cingulate, fusiform gyrus and cerebellum was associated with trait anger. The higher the concentration, the higher the proneness to experience anger in daily life due to the greater tendency to orient attention towards aversive events and interpret them with higher hostility. At a functional level, the activity of the default mode network (DMN) was associated with anger control. The higher the DMN temporal frequency, the stronger the exerted control over anger, thus extending previous evidence on the role of the DMN in regulating cognitive and emotional functions in the domain of anger. Taken together, these results show, for the first time, two specialized brain networks for encoding individual differences in trait anger and anger control

The influence of anger on empathy and theory of mind

Social cognition allows humans to understand and predict other people's behavior by inferring or sharing their emotions, intentions and beliefs. Few studies have investigated the impact of one's own emotional state on understanding others. Here, we tested the effect of being in an angry state on empathy and theory of mind (ToM). In a between-groups design we manipulated anger status with different paradigms in three studies (autobiographical recall (N = 45), negative feedback (N = 49), frustration (N = 46)) and checked how this manipulation affected empathic accuracy and performance in the EmpaToM. All paradigms were successful in inducing mild anger. We did not find the expected effect of anger on empathy or ToM performance but observed small behavioral changes. Together, our results validate the use of three different anger induction paradigms and speak for rather weak behavioral effects of mild state anger on empathy and ToM

Social Interaction Patterns of the Disabled People in Asymmetric Social Dilemmas

The social participation of the disabled people is unsatisfactory and low, one of the reasons often overlooked but of great importance may lie in the disparate patterns of social interaction between the disabled people and the abled people. The current study respectively recruited 41 and 80 disabled people in two experiments and adopted give-some games and public good dilemma to explore social interaction patterns between the disabled abled people. The results were as follows: (1) the disabled people preferred to interact with the disabled people and the abled people preferred to interact with the abled people. (2) The disabled abled people had higher cooperation, satisfaction and sense of justice when interacting with the disabled people than interacting with the abled people. (3) Advantage in the number of the disabled people could reverse their disadvantage in the identity. These results are of important practical value, which provides related theoretical support for the disabled people’s federation and communities when carrying out activities for the disabled people