title: Anger in brain and body: the neural and physiological perturbation of decision-making by emotion.
abstract: Emotion and cognition are dynamically coupled to bodily arousal: the induction of anger, even unconsciously, can reprioritise neural and physiological resources toward action states that bias cognitive processes. Here we examine behavioural, neural and bodily effects of covert anger processing and its influence on cognition, indexed by lexical decision-making. While recording beat-to-beat blood pressure, the words ANGER or RELAX were presented subliminally just prior to rapid word/non-word reaction-time judgements of letter-strings. Subliminal ANGER primes delayed the time taken to reach rapid lexical decisions, relative to RELAX primes. However, individuals with high trait anger were speeded up by subliminal anger primes. ANGER primes increased systolic blood pressure and the magnitude of this increase predicted reaction time prolongation. Within the brain, ANGER trials evoked an enhancement of activity within dorsal pons and an attenuation of activity within visual occipitotemporal and attentional parietal cortices. Activity within periaqueductal grey matter, occipital and parietal regions increased linearly with evoked blood pressure changes, indicating neural substrates through which covert anger impairs semantic decisions, putatively through its expression as visceral arousal. The behavioural and physiological impact of anger states compromises the efficiency of cognitive processing through action-ready changes in autonomic response that skew regional neural activity.
authors.affiliation: Division of Medicine, Psychiatry, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer BN1 9RR, UK, Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Falmer BN1 9RR, UK, s.garfinkel@bsms.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Sarah N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Garfinkel
authors.affiliation: Division of Medicine, Psychiatry, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer BN1 9RR, UK.
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zorab
authors.affiliation: Division of Medicine, Psychiatry, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer BN1 9RR, UK.
authors.forename: Nakulan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Navaratnam
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Engels
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine, Campus de la Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, Spain, Department of Psychiatry, Psychology and Psychosomatic Medicine, Institut Universitari Quirón Dexeus, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Núria
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mallorquí-Bagué
authors.affiliation: U.O. Direzione Scientifica, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Ludovico
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Minati
authors.affiliation: Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer BN1 9RR, UK.
authors.forename: Nicholas G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Dowell
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands, and.
authors.forename: Jos F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Brosschot
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, 133 Psychology Building, 1835 Neil Ave Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
authors.forename: Julian F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Thayer
authors.affiliation: Division of Medicine, Psychiatry, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer BN1 9RR, UK, Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Falmer BN1 9RR, UK.
authors.forename: Hugo D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Critchley
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology*; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013360:Subliminal Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: emotion; fMRI; lexical decision task; subliminal; systolic blood pressure