Neural bases of Frustration-Aggression Theory: A multi-domain meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies

ABSTRACT Early evidence suggests that unexpected non-reward may increase the risk for aggressive behaviors. Despite the growing interest in understanding brain functions that may be implicated in aggressive behaviors, the neural processes underlying such frustrative events remain largely unknown. Furthermore, meta-analytic results have produced discrepant results, potentially due to substantial differences in the definition of anger/aggression constructs. Therefore, coordinate-based meta-analyses on unexpected non-reward and retaliatory behaviors in healthy subjects were conducted. Conjunction analyses were further examined to discover overlapping brain activations across these meta-analytical maps. Frustrative non-reward deactivated the orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum and posterior cingulate cortex, whereas increased activations were observed in midcingulo-insular regions, as well as dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, thalamus and periaqueductal gray, when using liberal threshold. Retaliation activated of midcingulo-insular regions, the dorsal caudate and the primary somatosensory cortex. Conjunction analyses revealed that both strongly activated midcingulo-insular regions. Our results underscore the role of anterior midcingulate/pre-supplementary motor area and fronto-insular cortex in both frustration and retaliatory behaviors. A neurobiological framework for understanding frustration-based impulsive aggression is provided.