All parts of the brain › Functions › Anger

What part of the brain controls anger?

No single part. Animal studies point to an acute threat circuit, the amygdala, the hypothalamus and the periaqueductal grey in the midbrain, that drives the attack-ready reaction; electrically stimulating the hypothalamus alone can set off aggression. In people, brain scans during anger most consistently light the orbitofrontal cortex, and activity in the anterior cingulate cortex rises with how angry people say they feel. [1][2][3][4]

The amygdala, the hypothalamus, the midbrain, the orbitofrontal cortex and the cingulate gyrus lit in red on a 3D model of the brain, seen from the front left and above

Loading the 3D brain…

Lit: whole parts; region borders not drawn.

Slice

All 5 parts are lit together. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom, tap a part on the brain or a name in the list to focus it; .

The anterior cingulate cortex is a region on a lit gyrus, not a separate shape. The 3D model draws only whole gyri, so the gyrus that holds each area is lit; the area’s exact border is not drawn.

The periaqueductal grey is a region on the midbrain, not a separate shape. The 3D model has no shape for it, so the whole midbrain is lit; the region’s exact border is not drawn.

Anger: 5 parts lit

Amygdala, hypothalamus, midbrain, orbitofrontal cortex and cingulate gyrus. Tap one to see where it is and what it does.

The parts and their roles

One of the three acute threat response structures, with the hypothalamus and the periaqueductal grey, that a 2016 review argues are recruited in the typical case of aggression that comes with anger. Stimulating it increases aggression in hamsters; in primates its role is less clear and depends more on the situation. [1][2] Where is the amygdala?
Electrically stimulating it causes aggressive behaviour in animals, and with the periaqueductal grey it controls both the behaviour and the automatic body side of aggression, vocalising included, in cats, rats and monkeys; in mice, switching on oestrogen-receptor neurons in part of the ventromedial hypothalamus was enough to start an attack in males and females. Anger also switches on the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal stress axis. [2][3] Where is the hypothalamus?
Holds the periaqueductal grey, which with the hypothalamus is a critical area for aggression in mammals and one of the three threat response structures; the midbrain’s aggression areas connect directly to the brainstem nuclei that run the body’s side of it and to the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. [2][1] Where is the midbrain?
In neuroimaging studies of anger its lateral part is the most consistently activated region; in a PET study, eight healthy men imagining a scene from their own lives that had made them angry showed more blood flow in the left orbitofrontal cortex. [3][5] Where is the orbitofrontal cortex?
Holds the anterior cingulate cortex: its emotional (affective) division on the right was active in the same PET study of anger, and in an fMRI study of people insulted during a task, activity in its dorsal part rose with how angry they said they felt. [5][4] Where is the cingulate gyrus?

Named areas on the lit gyri

Anterior cingulate cortex, on the : The front of the cingulate gyrus; its dorsal part tracked how angry insulted people felt, and its affective division lit up when men relived an angering memory. [4][5]
The periaqueductal grey, on the : Grey matter around the cerebral aqueduct in the midbrain; with the hypothalamus it controls the behaviour and the automatic body side of aggression in cats, rats and monkeys. [2]

How they work together

Anger is an intense emotional state, a strong, uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. Aggression is the behaviour, and the two do not always come together: the 2016 review notes aggression that is not accompanied by anger at all. [3][1]
The body joins in through the same chain: anger switches on the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, heart rate and blood pressure rise, breathing through the nose gets faster, deeper and irregular, and the surge of stress chemicals is more noradrenaline than adrenaline. [3]
Whether the threat circuit’s push turns into an act is decided further forward: the review gives response selection to the ventromedial frontal cortex and the dorsomedial frontal and anterior insula cortex, and the prefrontal cortex is crucial for self-control and for holding back impulses, aggression and emotions included. [1][2]
Feeling anger and dwelling on it are separable in scans: after an insult, dorsal anterior cingulate activity tracked how angry people felt, while medial prefrontal activity tracked how much they went over it afterwards. [4]
Honest limit: these are networks seen in imaging and animal work, not single centres; the hypothalamus, periaqueductal grey and amygdala findings come mostly from stimulation in cats, rats, hamsters and monkeys, the amygdala’s part in primates depends on the situation, the human scans are small (eight men in the PET study), and the periaqueductal grey and anterior cingulate cortex are regions on lit parts, so whole parts are lit, not exact borders. [2][5][6]

Anger and fear draw on the same acute threat circuit of amygdala, hypothalamus and periaqueductal grey; the fear page lights those with the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and insula. [1] What part of the brain controls fear?

The hypothalamus starts something much calmer too: its paraventricular nucleus sets off a yawn, passed down through the brainstem. [7] What part of the brain makes you yawn?

Sources

Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. A part lit here takes part in anger; it does not do it alone, and it does other jobs too. The 3D model is the adult male BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); on it the brainstem includes the midbrain, pons and medulla, so lighting the brainstem lights all three.