Stress-induced asymmetric frontal brain activity and aggression risk

Impersonal stressors, not only interpersonal provocation, can instigate aggression through an associative network linking negative emotions to behavioral activation (L. Berkowitz, 1990). Research has not examined the brain mechanisms that are engaged by different types of stress and serve to promote hostility and aggression. The present study examined whether stress exposure elicits more left than right frontal brain activity implicated in behavioral approach motivation and whether this lateralized brain activity predicts stress-induced aggression and hostile/aggressive tendencies. Results showed that (a) participants in the impersonal (assigned to stress by a computer) and interpersonal (assigned to stress by a provoking confederate) stress conditions both showed more left than right frontal electroencephalogram activity after condition assignment and stress exposure and (b) the 2 stress groups exhibited subsequent increases in aggression relative to the no-stress group. Importantly, left frontal asymmetry in response to stress exposure predicted increases in subsequent aggressive behavior, a finding that did not emerge in the no-stress condition. Thus, both the interpersonal and impersonal stressors impacted state changes in brain activity related to behavioral approach, suggesting that stress reactivity involving approach activation represents risk for behavioral dysregulation.