Influence of aggression on information processing in the emotional stroop task--an event-related potential study

Aggression is a common behavior which has frequently been explained as involving changes in higher level information processing patterns. Although researchers have started only recently to investigate information processing in healthy individuals while engaged in aggressive behavior, the impact of a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience 2009-01, Vol.3, p.28-28
Main Authors: Bertsch, Katja, Böhnke, Robina, Kruk, Menno R, Naumann, Ewald
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aggression
Aggressive behavior
Aggressiveness
Anger
angry face
attentional bias
Behavior
Bias
emotional expression
Emotions
ERP
Event-related potentials
Information processing
interference
Medical imaging
Neuroscience
Researchers
Studies
threat
Threats
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Summary:Aggression is a common behavior which has frequently been explained as involving changes in higher level information processing patterns. Although researchers have started only recently to investigate information processing in healthy individuals while engaged in aggressive behavior, the impact of aggression on information processing beyond an aggressive encounter remains unclear. In an event-related potential study, we investigated the processing of facial expressions (happy, angry, fearful, and neutral) in an emotional Stroop task after experimentally provoking aggressive behavior in healthy participants. Compared to a non-provoked group, these individuals showed increased early (P2) and late (P3) positive amplitudes for all facial expressions. For the P2 amplitude, the effect of provocation was greatest for threat-related expressions. Beyond this, a bias for emotional expressions, i.e., slower reaction times to all emotional expressions, was found in provoked participants with a high level of trait anger. These results indicate significant effects of aggression on information processing, which last beyond the aggressive encounter even in healthy participants.
ISSN:1662-5153
1662-5153
DOI:10.3389/neuro.08.028.2009