Translational clinical neuroscience perspectives on the cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms underlying...

Alcohol-related violence, a longstanding, serious, and pervasive social problem, has provided researchers from diverse disciplines with a model to study individual differences in aggressive and violent behavior. Of course, not all alcohol consumers will become aggressive after drinking and similarly, not all individuals with alcohol use disorders will exhibit such untoward behavior. Rather, the relationship is best conceptualized as complex and indirect and is influenced by a constellation of social, cognitive, and biological factors that differ greatly from one person to the next. Animal experiments and human studies have elucidated how these mechanisms and processes explain (i.e., mediate) the relation between acute and chronic alcohol consumption and aggressive behavior. Further, the rich body of literature on alcohol-related aggression has allowed for identification of several potential high-yield targets for clinical intervention, e.g., cognitive training for executive dysfunction; psychopharmacology targeting affect and threat perception, which may also generalize to other psychiatric conditions characterized by aggressive behavior. Here we aim to integrate pertinent findings, derived from different methodological approaches and theoretical models, which explain heterogeneity in aggressive responses to alcohol. A translational platform is provided, highlighting common factors linking alcohol and aggression that warrant further, interdisciplinary study in order to reduce the devastating social impact of this phenomenon.