Control your anger! The neural basis of aggression regulation in response to negative social feedback
Open accessAbstract
Negative social feedback often generates aggressive feelings and behavior. Prior studies have investigated the neural basis of negative social feedback, but the underlying neural mechanisms of aggression regulation following negative social feedback remain largely undiscovered. In the current study, participants viewed pictures of peers with feedback (positive, neutral or negative) to the participant's personal profile. Next, participants responded to the peer feedback by pressing a button, thereby producing a loud noise toward the peer, as an index of aggression. Behavioral analyses showed that negative feedback led to more aggression (longer noise blasts). Conjunction neuroimaging analyses revealed that both positive and negative feedback were associated with increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) and bilateral insula. In addition, more activation in the right dorsal lateral PFC (dlPFC) during negative feedback vs neutral feedback was associated with shorter noise blasts in response to negative social feedback, suggesting a potential role of dlPFC in aggression regulation, or top-down control over affective impulsive actions. This study demonstrates a role of the dlPFC in the regulation of aggressive social behavior.
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Adults show antagonistic or retaliatory behavior toward others following negative feedback.
“and show antagonistic or retaliatory behavior toward others following negative feedback (11).”
From Development of self-protective biases in response to social evaluative feedback (2017) · cites this paper as [11]
Adults tend to rate accepting peers more favorably, respond to negative feedback by denigrating others, and engage in retaliatory impression updating, consistent with previous work.
“The tendency for adults to rate accepting peers more favorably (36), respond to negative feedback by denigrating others (5, 9, 10), and engage in retaliatory impression updating (11) aligns with previous work.”
From Development of self-protective biases in response to social evaluative feedback (2017) · cites this paper as [11]
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- Authors
- Achterberg, M., van Duijvenvoorde, A. C. K., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & Crone, E. A.
- Affiliations
- Leiden University (NL)
- Venue
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2016-01-10
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 712-720
- ISSN
- 1749-5016 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-5024
- PMC
- PMC4847693
- OpenAlex
- W2283899969
- Cited by
- 125
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 3
- FWCI
- 8.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (024‐001‐003)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- aggression management, anger, medial prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, insula, top-down control, impulsive behavior, social rejection
- MeSH terms
- Self-Control, Adolescent, Adult, Aggression, Anger, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Peer Group, Feedback, Psychological, Young Adult
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