Angry people have smaller “emotional brains”
Brain scans show that people with aggressive behavior have smaller parts of the brain that is responsible for emotions.
A new article published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging reports that individuals with intermittent explosive disorder (IED) have significantly lower gray matter volume in these frontolimbic brain structures. In other words, these people have smaller “emotional brains.”
“Intermittent explosive disorder is defined in DSM-5 as recurrent, problematic, impulsive aggression,” explained Dr. Emil Coccaro, the article’s lead author. “While more common than bipolar disorder and schizophrenia combined, many in the scientific and lay communities believe that impulsive aggression is simply ‘bad behavior’ that requires an ‘attitude adjustment.’ However, our data confirm that IED, as defined by DSM-5, is a brain disorder and not simply a disorder of ‘personality.'” Dr. Coccaro is the E.C. Manning Professor and Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Chicago.
The investigators collected high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans in 168 subjects, including 57 subjects with IED, 53 healthy control subjects, and 58 psychiatric control subjects. The team found a direct correlation between history of actual aggressive behavior and the magnitude of reduction in gray matter volume, linking both in a dimensional relationship.
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