@article{ref1,
title="A functional polymorphism of the MAOA gene is associated with neural responses to induced anger control",
journal="Journal of cognitive neuroscience",
year="2014",
author="Denson, Thomas F. and Dobson-Stone, Carol and Ronay, Richard and von Hippel, William and Schira, Mark M.",
volume="26",
number="7",
pages="1418-1427",
abstract="Aggressiveness is highly heritable. Recent experimental work has linked individual differences in a functional polymorphism of the monoamine oxidase-A gene (MAOA) to anger-driven aggression. Other work has implicated the dorsal ACC (dACC) in cognitive-emotional control and the amygdala in emotional arousal. The present imaging genetics study investigated dACC and amygdala reactivity to induced anger control as a function of MAOA genotype. A research assistant asked 38 healthy male undergraduates to control their anger in response to an insult by a rude experimenter. Men with the low-expression allele showed increased dACC and amygdala activation after the insult, but men with the high-expression allele did not. Both dACC and amygdala activation independently mediated the relationship between MAOA genotype and self-reported anger control. Moreover, following the insult, men with the high-functioning allele showed functional decoupling between the amygdala and dACC, but men with the low-functioning allele did not. These results suggest that heightened dACC and amygdala activation and their connectivity are neuroaffective mechanisms underlying anger control in participants with the low-functioning allele of the MAOA gene.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0898-929X",
doi="10.1162/jocn_a_00592",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00592"
}