scholarly journals Punishment on Pause: Preliminary Evidence That Mindfulness Training Modifies Neural Responses in a Reactive Aggression Task

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadley Rahrig ◽  
James M. Bjork ◽  
Camila Tirado ◽  
David S. Chester ◽  
J. David Creswell ◽  
...  

Reactive aggression, a hostile retaliatory response to perceived threat, has been attributed to failures in emotion regulation. Interventions for reactive aggression have largely focused on cognitive control training, which target top-down emotion regulation mechanisms to inhibit aggressive impulses. Recent theory suggests that mindfulness training (MT) improves emotion regulation via both top-down and bottom-up neural mechanisms and has thus been proposed as an alternative treatment for aggression. Using this framework, the current pilot study examined how MT impacts functional brain physiology in the regulation of reactive aggression. Participants were randomly assigned to 2 weeks of MT (n = 11) or structurally equivalent active coping training (CT) that emphasizes cognitive control (n = 12). Following training, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a retaliatory aggression task, a 16-trial game in which participants could respond to provocation by choosing whether or not to retaliate in the next round. Training groups did not differ in levels of aggression displayed. However, participants assigned to MT exhibited enhanced ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) recruitment during punishment events (i.e., the aversive consequence of losing) relative to those receiving active CT. Conversely, the active coping group demonstrated greater dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) activation when deciding how much to retaliate, in line with a bolstered top-down behavior monitoring function. The findings suggest that mindfulness and cognitive control training may regulate aggression via different neural circuits and at different temporal stages of the provocation-aggression cycle.Trial Registration: identification no. NCT03485807.

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-260
Author(s):  
Jeremy R. Gray ◽  
Todd S. Braver

The primrose path and prisoner's dilemma paradigms may require cognitive (executive) control: The active maintenance of context representations in lateral prefrontal cortex to provide top-down support for specific behaviors in the face of short delays or stronger response tendencies. This perspective suggests further tests of whether altruism is a type of self-control, including brain imaging, induced affect, and dual-task studies.


Author(s):  
Bronwyn M. Graham ◽  
Mohammed R. Milad

The ability to appropriately regulate fear and anxiety is considered a top-down process involving higher-level cortical structures. Here, we review evidence that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is critically involved in many laboratory emotion regulation tasks in both rodents and humans, including behavioral or experiential forms of regulation like fear extinction, and cognitive forms of regulation like reappraisal. We also discuss research demonstrating that failures in emotion regulation, as observed in many psychiatric conditions like anxiety disorders, are associated with PFC structural abnormalities and/or aberrant PFC functional activity. We conclude that the PFC may act as a common gateway between higher-level cortical structures and limbic/brainstem areas to mediate the appropriate control of emotions, irrespective of the regulation strategy (i.e., behavioral or cognitive) employed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katja Bertsch ◽  
Julian Florange ◽  
Sabine C. Herpertz

Abstract Purpose of Review To review the current literature on biobehavioral mechanisms involved in reactive aggression in a transdiagnostic approach. Recent Findings Aggressive reactions are closely related to activations in the brain’s threat circuitry. They occur in response to social threat that is experienced as inescapable, which, in turn, facilitates angry approach rather than fearful avoidance. Provocation-induced aggression is strongly associated with anger and deficits in cognitive control including emotion regulation and inhibitory control. Furthermore, the brain’s reward system plays a particular role in anger-related, tit-for-tat-like retaliatory aggression in response to frustration. More research is needed to further disentangle specific brain responses to social threat, provocation, and frustration. Summary A better understanding of the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms involved in reactive aggression may pave the way for specific mechanism-based treatments, involving biological or psychotherapeutic approaches or a combination of the two.


Emotion ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. 945-956 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristof Hoorelbeke ◽  
Ernst H. W. Koster ◽  
Ineke Demeyer ◽  
Tom Loeys ◽  
Marie-Anne Vanderhasselt

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