Abstract
The effect of cholinergic stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus on muricide in rats was evaluated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, injections of the cholinergic agonist carbachol (5.0-20.0 μg) were found to facilitate muricide in rats that spontaneously killed mice. In Experiment 2, rats were induced to kill mice by food deprivation and then stimulated with carbachol (2.5-5.0 μg). Facilitation of muricide was found to be coincident with increased scores on a handling difficulty (irritability) scale for the majority of rats. These results suggest that facilitation of muricade by cholinergic stimulation of lateral hypothalamic areas may be related to increases in irritable aggression.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 747-753 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 1981 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This researchw as supportedb y NationalI nstituteo f Mental HealthG rantM H 15174to ColumbiaU niversitya ndb ya granftr om theN ew York StateH ealthR esearcCh ounci(l No, 11-120t)o B. C. Yoburn.W e extendo urd eepa ppreciatiotno Dr. John Nee of the ResearchA ssessmenatn d TrainingU nit of the New York State PsychiatriIcn stitutefo r assistancwei tht hes tatisticaaln alysesD. r. M. T. Tumockp rovidedm anyh elpfulc ommentdsu ringt hec ourse of thiss tudyR. eprintsc anb eo btainefdr omB , C, Yoburn,D epart-mento f PsychiatryC, ollegeo f Physicianasn dS urgeonsC, olumbia University7, 22W est1 68thS treetN, ew York, NY 10032.
Keywords
- Aggression
- Carbachol
- Cholinergic stimulation
- Handling
- Interspecific aggression
- Irritability
- Lateral hypothalamus
- Muricide
- Rats