title: Reducing proactive aggression through non-invasive brain stimulation.
abstract: Aggressive behavior poses a threat to human collaboration and social safety. It is of utmost importance to identify the functional mechanisms underlying aggression and to develop potential interventions capable of reducing dysfunctional aggressive behavior already at a brain level. We here experimentally shifted fronto-cortical asymmetry to manipulate the underlying motivational emotional states in both male and female participants while assessing the behavioral effects on proactive and reactive aggression. Thirty-two healthy volunteers received either anodal transcranial direct current stimulation to increase neural activity within right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, or sham stimulation. Aggressive behavior was measured with the Taylor Aggression Paradigm. We revealed a general gender effect, showing that men displayed more behavioral aggression than women. After the induction of right fronto-hemispheric dominance, proactive aggression was reduced in men. This study demonstrates that non-invasive brain stimulation can reduce aggression in men. This is a relevant and promising step to better understand how cortical brain states connect to impulsive actions and to examine the causal role of the prefrontal cortex in aggression. Ultimately, such findings could help to examine whether the brain can be a direct target for potential supportive interventions in clinical settings dealing with overly aggressive patients and/or violent offenders.
authors: Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands, franziska.dambacher@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
authors: Franziska
authors: F
authors: Dambacher
authors: Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors: Teresa
authors: T
authors: Schuhmann
authors: Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, and.
authors: Jill
authors: J
authors: Lobbestael
authors: Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, and Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Arnoud
authors: A
authors: Arntz
authors: Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, and.
authors: Suzanne
authors: S
authors: Brugman
authors: Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors: Alexander T
authors: AT
authors: Sack
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D057237:Criminals; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D011897:Random Allocation; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: Taylor aggression paradigm; aggression; dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; impulsivity; inter-hemispheric asymmetry; tDCS