Jiang Qi, Hou Lulu, Wang Huanzhen, Li Changran
Institution of Mental Health Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Department of Psychology, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
Front Psychol. 2018 Oct 15;9:1903. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01903. eCollection 2018.
A number of empirical researches have shown that reactive aggression, which is the behavior that is impulsive, thoughtless, driven by anger, and causes harm toward another individual, can lead to a series of negative effects. Cognitive reappraisal may have the potential to reduce reactive aggression, but evidence for this effect in healthy populations is lacking. We randomly assigned participants to a Reappraisal Group ( = 19) or Control Group ( = 20) in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) version of the well-established Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP). TAP was employed to elicit and measure reactive aggression, during which participants were informed that they would play a competitive reaction time task against two opponents in turn and the winner would punish the loser. The TAP used in this study separates the decision-making (during which participants were asked to set a punishment level for the opponent) and affective processes (during which the punishment was applied or received) that underlie reactive aggression. Behavioral data showed that there was no difference between the Reappraisal Group and Control Group in the punishment level selections (i.e., reactive aggression). However, on the neural level, cognitive reappraisal reduced the activation of left insula, right cuneus, and right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) during the decision phase, independently of the level of provocation. In addition, cognitive reappraisal reduced the activation of the caudate under the provocative condition when making decisions about aggressive behavior. The results of the outcome phase showed that, after winning a competition, cognitive reappraisal increased the activation of the right orbital middle frontal gyrus (OMFG) under the provocative condition and reduced the activation of the bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA) under the non-provocative condition. The results suggest that cognitive reappraisal would be effective in modulating the neural activity of reactive aggression.
大量实证研究表明，反应性攻击行为，即冲动、欠思考、受愤怒驱使且对他人造成伤害的行为，会导致一系列负面影响。认知重评可能有降低反应性攻击行为的潜力，但健康人群中这种效果的证据尚缺。我们在成熟的泰勒攻击范式（TAP）的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）版本中，将参与者随机分配到重评组（n = 19）或对照组（n = 20）。采用TAP来引发和测量反应性攻击行为，在此过程中告知参与者他们将依次与两名对手进行竞争性反应时任务，胜者将惩罚败者。本研究中使用的TAP区分了构成反应性攻击行为基础的决策过程（在此过程中要求参与者为对手设定惩罚水平）和情感过程（在此过程中实施或接受惩罚）。行为数据表明，重评组和对照组在惩罚水平选择（即反应性攻击行为）上没有差异。然而，在神经层面，认知重评在决策阶段降低了左脑岛、右脑楔叶和右额中回（MFG）的激活，与挑衅水平无关。此外，在对攻击行为做决策时，认知重评在挑衅条件下降低了尾状核的激活。结果阶段的结果表明，在赢得一场比赛后，认知重评在挑衅条件下增加了右眶额中回（OMFG）的激活，并在非挑衅条件下降低了双侧辅助运动区（SMA）的激活。结果表明，认知重评在调节反应性攻击行为的神经活动方面是有效的。
