Anger

Assuming that you are not seeing explosive, often apparently unprovoked rages, which would suggest temporal lobe epilepsy, with anger outbursts, there are several things I would usually look for:

1. Hot right side:  beta and high-beta levels about 14% and 10%–often significantly higher–and often reversed L/R anywhere from F to P.

2. Anomalies at F8: this emotional regulation area may show high levels of slow, unblocked alpha or, occasionally, even beta/high-beta.  Sometimes a very hot area here connects with a very repressed emotional state and very withdrawn social pattern–but that’s not always true, especially if there’s a lot of fast activity on the right side pretty much front to back, it can also relate to emotional explosiveness.

3. T4 especially quite hot.

4. Sometimes a completely shut down prefrontal area.

If 1 or 2 are not present, then I’d focus first on the temporals (assuming they are hot).

The midline/cingulate would be more likely to show obsessive thought or compulsive behaviors unless it shows a differential in slow activity (indicating it is burned out).  Ordinarily I would recommend trying something like the M2/Fp1 SMR% up protocol to calm that area and move it into a more functional state.  I would not train Fz and Oz (2-channel protocol), because you are training two polar opposite areas of the brain at the same time.  Fz and Cz or Cz and Pz (or FCz and CPz) referenced to opposite ears and linked would give you a good effect on the Cingulate. 

Explosive Anger

With explosive anger, I’d often expect to see beta and/or high beta reversals with the values on the left side up at 17/10% or well above; alpha problems (lots of slow alpha or alpha that doesn’t block); or high levels of fast-wave coherence, especially frontally, could also be present.

One of the issues to explore is whether there is a sudden, explosive nature to the anger, that seems to come and completely overcome the person, completely out of proportion to any provocation.  If this is true, you may be looking at temporal lobe seizures.  These are generally sub-clinical seizures, but they cause the temporal lobe to “lock up.” As with most such activity, it won’t necessarily show up in the EEG unless you happen to be monitoring when it happens.

If your questioning elicits indications that this explosive uncontrolled nature is there, then I would work at T4/Fp1, training up SMR.  Otherwise, I might simply try some C4 SMR.