Project Details
Projekt
Anger rumination as a mechanism of reactive aggression in borderline personality disorder – a multi-method approach to investigate neural correlates and situational factors
Subject Area
Biological Psychiatry
Term
since 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 546801147
Anger and subsequent aggressive outbursts are core features of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Although they strongly contribute to the individual suffering and cause tremendous social costs, the question remains how anger emerges and when it turns into aggression. Our group has elucidated some mechanisms of anger-related aggression in BPD. One critical mechanism however, has not received much attention, yet: Anger rumination, i.e. the repetitive, passive, unconstructive thinking about anger-inducing situations and revenge, has been discussed to elevate feelings of anger, deplete self-regulatory resources, and thereby facilitate aggressive outbursts. Previous studies indicated higher levels of anger, more frequent anger rumination, and elevated aggression in individuals with BPD compared to healthy volunteers. In a recent study, individuals with BPD reported more intense and frequent feelings of anger in their daily life than individuals with other mental disorders. Enriching everyday mood assessments with questions regarding anger rumination and aggressive outbursts as well as mobile sensing will help to gain a more detailed picture of the emergence of anger and aggression, associated situational factors and anger rumination in BPD. Individual differences in the processing of anger-inducing situations and anger rumination can also be assessed with functional magnetic neuroimaging (fMRI) compatible experimental paradigms. In BPD, these have only been applied in a pilot study which revealed increased activations in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and the nucleus accumbens during anger rumination as compared to healthy volunteers. This activation pattern suggests a reinforcing aspect of excessive self-referential processing of anger-inducing situations. It remains unclear, how these neural correlates of anger rumination are related to aggressive behavior in BPD and anger rumination in real life. The aim of the proposed project is to systematically investigate anger rumination and its role in anger-related aggression in BPD and healthy volunteers using an innovative, multimethodological approach encompassing situational factors in real life as well as neural correlates of anger rumination. To this end, ecological momentary assessment (EMA), mobile sensing and fMRI will be applied together with interviews and trait questionnaires. A total of N=170 individuals with BPD and N=170 healthy participants will be included in the study of which N=55 of each sample will undergo fMRI measurement including a script-driven anger rumination task. Building on our expertise with these methods from previous studies, this approach will enable us to gain new insights into neural correlates and daily manifestations of anger rumination and anger-related aggression as well as their association. Results may help to optimize psychotherapy and future digital interventions and, thus, to reduce individual and social burden caused by anger and aggression in BPD.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
