title: In the eye of the beholder: individual differences in reward-drive modulate early frontocentral ERPs to angry faces.
abstract: Individual differences in reward-drive have been associated with increased attention toward facial signals of aggression, heightened experience of anger and vulnerability to display aggressive behaviour. Recent fMRI research suggests that these effects rely on reduced ventromedial prefrontal (and increased amygdala) response to aggressive facial displays compared with neutral and sad expressions in subjects scoring high on reward-drive. However, nothing is known about the timing of this modulation. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we provide the first evidence that greater proneness to display hostile and aggressive behaviour (measured by high scores on the reward-drive) is associated with a reduced midline frontocentral response to aggressive faces within 200-300ms. In addition to confirming a particular interaction between anger processing and aggression related personality traits in ventromedial prefrontal brain regions, our study brings a first indication of when their interaction occurs in the brain, strengthening results from previous classical as well as functional connectivity fMRI studies.
authors.affiliation: MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge CB2 7EF, UK. benoit.bediou@unige.ch
authors.forename: Benoit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bediou
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eimer
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: d'Amato
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hauk
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Calder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012201:Reward; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult