Transcranial direct current stimulation over the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex improves anger regulation in intoxicated individuals high in trait anger

Poor anger regulation is a risk factor for alcohol-related aggression. Acute alcoholconsumption reduces one’s ability to regulate anger by altering prefrontal cortical activity andsubsequent self-regulation. Past research suggests that brief stimulation of prefrontal corticalregions implicated in emotion regulation can reduce anger in sober individuals. Here, weinvestigated whether transcranial direct current stimulation over the right ventrolateralprefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) would reduce anger in intoxicated (vs sober) participantsfollowing instructed emotion regulation. Two-hundred healthy participants consumed alcoholor no drink and received transcranial direct current stimulation or sham stimulation over therVLPFC. During stimulation, participants engaged in cognitive reappraisal, distraction, andrumination to regulate recalled anger. As predicted, anger was lowest after engaging indistraction, followed by cognitive reappraisal, and greatest after engaging in rumination.Contrary to our predictions, we did not observe any main effects of alcohol, stimulation, ortheir interaction. However, exploratory analyses revealed anger following rumination wassignificantly reduced for intoxicated participants high in trait anger who received anodalstimulation, compared to sham stimulation. Alcohol also increased anger in people prone toangry rumination. Further research is needed to replicate these findings and refine the optimaltDCS parameters for effective intervention to improve anger regulation.