Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25680991›Full record

ArticleSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2015

Reducing proactive aggression through non-invasive brain stimulation.

Franziska Dambacher, Teresa Schuhmann, Jill Lobbestael, Arnoud Arntz, Suzanne Brugman, Alexander T Sack

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
48citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
6.3field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

48 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 135 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Trial
  5. Trial
  6. Neuromodulation can reduce aggressive behavior elicited by violent video games.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2017
    Trial
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Review: Suicide and its relationship to aggression and impulsivity.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025
    Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Hostile Attribution Bias Shapes Neural Synchrony in the Left Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex during Ambiguous Social Narratives.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024
    Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Franziska DambacherDepartment of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands, franziska.dambacher@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
Teresa SchuhmannDepartment of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Jill LobbestaelDepartment of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, and.
Arnoud ArntzDepartment of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, and Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Suzanne BrugmanDepartment of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, and.
Alexander T SackDepartment of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Maastricht University · NL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Aggressive behavior poses a threat to human collaboration and social safety. It is of utmost importance to identify the functional mechanisms underlying aggression and to develop potential interventions capable of reducing dysfunctional aggressive behavior already at a brain level. We here experimentally shifted fronto-cortical asymmetry to manipulate the underlying motivational emotional states in both male and female participants while assessing the behavioral effects on proactive and reactive aggression. Thirty-two healthy volunteers received either anodal transcranial direct current stimulation to increase neural activity within right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, or sham stimulation. Aggressive behavior was measured with the Taylor Aggression Paradigm. We revealed a general gender effect, showing that men displayed more behavioral aggression than women. After the induction of right fronto-hemispheric dominance, proactive aggression was reduced in men. This study demonstrates that non-invasive brain stimulation can reduce aggression in men. This is a relevant and promising step to better understand how cortical brain states connect to impulsive actions and to examine the causal role of the prefrontal cortex in aggression. Ultimately, such findings could help to examine whether the brain can be a direct target for potential supportive interventions in clinical settings dealing with overly aggressive patients and/or violent offenders.

Indexed as

Electric StimulationAdultAggressionCriminalsEmotionsFemaleHumansMaleMotivationPrefrontal CortexRandom AllocationSelf ReportSex Factorsaggressiondorsolateral prefrontal corteximpulsivityinter-hemispheric asymmetryTaylor aggression paradigmtDCS

Identifiers

PMID25680991
PMCPMC4590530
OpenAlexW2073086697

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.