The Applicability of Virtual Reality-Based Training for Controlling Anger in Aggressive Individuals.

Because a failure of anger control leads to emotional and social problems, appropriate anger management may be important for social well-being. Virtual reality (VR) may potentially be effectively utilized in anger management, and this study aimed to verify the applicability of the VR-based anger control training program. The data obtained by having 60 young male participants divided into 2 groups, the high aggression group and the low aggression group, based on their Aggression Questionnaire scores to execute this program were analyzed. The program consisted of "Anger Exposure Training" for provoking anger and facilitating anger control and "Mindfulness Training" for providing the meditation experience for controlling anger. The anger scores and comfort scores obtained from these tasks, respectively, were analyzed for differences between the groups and between the experimental conditions. The anger regulation and comfort enhancement rates were analyzed for correlations with psychological variables. In Anger Exposure Training, the anger scores in angry expression were reduced in managed expression of anger in both groups. In Mindfulness Training, meditation increased comfort score as well in both groups, and the comfort enhancement rates were negatively correlated with the levels of self-differentiation and open communication with mother only in the high aggression group. These results indicate that the VR environments can provide an effective means of trainings for managing anger. Therefore, further research on the effectiveness of the VR-based anger control training program is worthy conducting in individuals who express excessive aggression.

Disrupted salience processing involved in motivational deficits for real-life activities in patients with schizophrenia.

Motivational deficits in patients with schizophrenia adversely affect various domains of daily living. This symptom in everyday life situations manifests in a complex behavioral pattern whose root cannot be simplified to an impaired reward-motivation scheme. This study aimed to identify impairment of the salience network that underlies motivational deficits seen in patients with schizophrenia in real-life situations. During the functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 normal controls performed a task mimicking real-life situations, in which an avatar proposed participation in a daily activity with either an intrinsic or extrinsic reward. Group and type-of-reward effects were evaluated with respect to brain activity. Further, psychophysiological interactions were analyzed for the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insula, which are the key nodes of the salience network. The acceptance of the proposal was significantly higher for intrinsic than for extrinsic rewards in controls, whereas patients showed no difference. The imaging results showed a group effect in the dACC, right insula, thalamus, and lingual gyrus. The dACC showed negative contrast interaction with regions of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and the right insula showed positive contrast interaction with the occipital gyrus and precentral gyrus. These results suggest that patients exhibit no different participation behavior between activities with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, which can be explained by the floor effect. Disrupted salience processing in schizophrenia including aberrant salience network and a disconnection of the salience and reward networks may account for the lack of motivation for daily activities.