Skip Navigation



Brain Advance Access published online on August 2, 2004
Brain, doi:10.1093/brain/awh214
© 2004 by Guarantors of Brain
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
127/9/1958    most recent
awh214v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Calder, A. J.
Right arrow Articles by Manes, F.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Calder, A. J.
Right arrow Articles by Manes, F.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Received October 13, 2003
Revised March 3, 2004
Accepted April 18, 2004

Article

Impaired recognition of anger following damage to the ventral striatum

Andrew J. Calder 1*, Jill Keane 1, Andrew D. Lawrence 1, Facundo Manes 2

1 MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK
2 Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology Section, Department of Neurology, Raul Carrea Institute for Neurological Research (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: andy.calder{at}mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk.


  Abstract

Summary Comparative neuropsychology has identified a role for the ventral striatum (VS) in certain forms of aggression. To address whether the homologous region in humans also contributes to the emotion anger, we studied a case series of four human subjects with focal lesions affecting the VS. All four demonstrated a disproportionate impairment in recognizing human signals of aggression. By contrast, a control group of individuals with damage to more dorsal basal ganglia (BG) regions showed no evidence of an anger impairment. Our findings demonstrate that the VS makes a significant contribution to coding signals of aggression in humans, and emphasize the importance of an approach to human affective neuroscience based on cross-species homologies. The results are discussed in relation to the ventral striatal dopamine system's role in the pursuit of biological resources in general. We propose that the role of the VS in the recognition of human signals of anger may reflect a more general role in the coordination of behaviour relevant to the acquisition and protection of valued resources, including detection of signals of conspecific challenge (anger).

Keywords: ventral striatum; anger; aggression; facial expressions; vocal expressions.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
J. D. Beaver, A. D. Lawrence, L. Passamonti, and A. J. Calder
Appetitive Motivation Predicts the Neural Response to Facial Signals of Aggression
J. Neurosci., March 12, 2008; 28(11): 2719 - 2725.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neuropsychiatry Clin. Neurosi.Home page
J. Jankovic, C. Kwak, and R. Frankoff
Tourette's Syndrome and the Law.
J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci, December 1, 2006; 18(1): 86 - 95.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Cereb CortexHome page
R. Levy and B. Dubois
Apathy and the Functional Anatomy of the Prefrontal Cortex-Basal Ganglia Circuits
Cereb Cortex, July 1, 2006; 16(7): 916 - 928.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 BrainHome page
A. Suzuki, T. Hoshino, K. Shigemasu, and M. Kawamura
Disgust-specific impairment of facial expression recognition in Parkinson's disease
Brain, March 1, 2006; 129(3): 707 - 717.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.