Nicholas J. Kelley

When Anger Leads to Rumination Induction of Relative Right Frontal Cortical Activity With Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Increases Anger-Related Rumination

Anger is associated with various responses. Research on the neuroscience of anger has revealed that greater left than right frontal cortical activity is associated with angry approach-oriented responses, such as aggression, whereas greater right than left frontal cortical activity is associated with inhibited angry responses mixed with anxiety. In the current research, we extended these past studies by manipulating asymmetric frontal cortical activity using transcranial direct current stimulation and assessing its influence on ruminative responses to an interpersonal insult. Results revealed that self-reported rumination was greatest for participants who received a manipulated increase in relative right frontal cortical activity compared with those who received either a manipulated increase in relative left frontal cortical activity or sham stimulation. Taken together with past findings, the current results suggest that anger associated with greater relative left frontal cortical activity predicts approach-oriented aggressive action, whereas anger associated with greater relative right frontal cortical activity predicts inhibited rumination.

The relationship of approach/avoidance motivation and asymmetric frontal cortical activity: A review of studies manipulating frontal asymmetry

The balance between activity in the left and right frontal cortex, commonly referred to as asymmetric frontal cortical activity, has served as a proxy for an organisms motivational direction (i.e., approach vs. avoidance). Many studies have examined the influence of the manipulation of motivational direction on asymmetrical frontal cortical activity and found results consistent with the idea that greater relative left (right) frontal cortical activity is associated with approach (avoidance) motivation. We critically review literature employing physical (versus psychological) manipulations of frontal asymmetry using a variety of methodologies including neurofeedback training, muscular contractions, and non-invasive brain stimulation. These reviewed methods allow us to make stronger causal inferences regarding the role of asymmetric frontal cortical activity in approach and avoidance motivation.

Jealousy increased by induced relative left frontal cortical activity

Asymmetric frontal cortical activity may be one key to the process linking social exclusion to jealous feelings. The current research examined the causal role of asymmetric frontal brain activity in modulating jealousy in response to social exclusion. Transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) over the frontal cortex to manipulate asymmetric frontal cortical activity was combined with a modified version of the Cyberball paradigm designed to induce jealousy. After receiving 15 min of tDCS, participants were excluded by a desired partner and reported how jealous they felt. Among individuals who were excluded, tDCS to increase relative left frontal cortical activity caused greater levels of self-reported jealousy compared to tDCS to increase relative right frontal cortical activity or sham stimulation. Limitations concerning the specificity of this effect and implications for the role of the asymmetric prefrontal cortical activity in motivated behaviors are discussed.

Trait approach motivation moderates the aftereffects of self-control.

Numerous experiments have found that exercising self-control reduces success on subsequent, seemingly unrelated self-control tasks. Such evidence lends support to a strength model that posits a limited and depletable resource underlying all manner of self-control. Recent theory and evidence suggest that exercising self-control may also increase approach-motivated impulse strength. The two studies reported here tested two implications of this increased approach motivation hypothesis. First, aftereffects of self-control should be evident even in responses that require little or no self-control. Second, participants higher in trait approach motivation should be particularly susceptible to such aftereffects. In support, exercising self-control led to increased optimism (Study 1) and broadened attention (Study 2), but only among individuals higher in trait approach motivation. These findings suggest that approach motivation is an important key to understanding the aftereffects of exercising self-control.

Mortality salience biases attention to positive versus negative images among individuals higher in trait self-control

Death is inevitable. One way people cope with awareness of death is to focus on the positive things in life. Consistent with this idea, reminders of personal mortality have been found to increase optimism and tune attention towards positive information. The current research tested the hypothesis that persons higher in trait self-control are especially likely to attend to positive (versus negative) stimuli under mortality salience (MS). Participants completed a measure of trait self-control, contemplated their own mortality or a control topic, and then viewed positive and negative affective images while their gaze patterns were recorded. MS increased the attention to positive (versus negative) images among participants higher in trait self-control, whereas those lower in trait self-control exhibited a non-significant trend in the opposite direction. Thus, participants higher in trait self-control showed a positivity bias after contemplating death, which may help explain why they tend to enjoy more positive outcomes in life.

Emotions and Meaning in Life: A Motivational Perspective

The pursuit of meaning in life has been described as a central human motivation. All the things we strive to do somehow relate to this elusive feeling of purpose. Research connecting emotions to judgments of meaning is relatively sparse, and the results are mixed. This chapter introduces a new perspective to resolve the controversies and instigate new ideas. While emotions have been examined in terms of their valence and arousal, studies have largely ignored their motivational properties. Both the emotions that facilitate immediate action and the ones that linger after our goal attempts have succeeded or failed impact our sense of how meaningful our lives are. The possible relationship between meaning in life and various discrete emotions is discussed, based largely on each emotion’s motivational intensity and direction, in relation to goal pursuit.

Noninvasive stimulation over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex facilitates the inhibition of motivated responding.

Self-control involves the inhibition of dominant response tendencies. Most research on self-control has examined the inhibition of appetitive tendencies, and recent evidence suggests that stimulation to increase right frontal cortical activity helps to inhibit approach-motivated responses. The current experiment paired an approach-avoidance joystick task with transcranial DC stimulation to test the effects of brain stimulation on the inhibition of both approach and avoidance response tendencies. Anodal stimulation over the right/cathodal stimulation over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (compared to the opposite pattern of stimulation or sham stimulation) caused participants to initiate motive-incongruent movements more quickly, thereby suggesting a shared neural mechanism for the self-control of both approach- and avoidance-motivated impulses. (PsycINFO Database Record

Thinking about Death Reduces Delay Discounting.

The current study tested competing predictions regarding the effect of mortality salience on delay discounting. One prediction, based on evolutionary considerations, was that reminders of death increase the value of the present. Another prediction, based in part on construal level theory, was that reminders of death increase the value of the future. One-hundred eighteen participants thought about personal mortality or a control topic and then completed an inter-temporal choice task pitting the chance to gain

The effects of negative emotions on sensory perception: fear but not anger decreases tactile sensitivity

50 now against increasingly attractive rewards three months later. Consistent with the hypothesis inspired by construal theory, participants in the mortality salience condition traded

Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Improves Procedural Learning in Nonclinical Psychosis: A Double-Blind Crossover Study

50 now for