Autonomic and limbic neural activities are linked to aggressive behavior, and it is hypothesized that activities in the cardiovascular and monoaminergic systems play a role in preparing for an aggressive challenge. The objective was to learn about the emergence of monoamine activity in nucleus accumbens before an aggressive confrontation that was omitted at the regular time of occurrence, dissociating the motoric from the aminergic activity. Dopamine, serotonin, heart rate and behavioral activity were monitored before, during and after a single 10-min confrontation in resident male Long-Evans rats fitted with a microdialysis probe in the n. accumbens and with a telemetry sender (experiment 1). DA, but not 5-HT efflux, was confirmed to increase in n. accumbens during and after a single aggressive episode. In aggressive males that confronted an opponent daily for 10 days (experiment 2) heart rate rose 1 h before the regularly scheduled encounter relative to control rats, as measured on day 11 in the absence of any aggression. Concurrently, DA levels increased by 60-70% over baseline levels and 5-HT levels decreased by 30-35% compared to baseline levels. These changes were sustained over 1 h, and contrasted with no significant changes in DA, 5-HT, heart rate or behavioral activity in control rats. The rise in mesolimbic DA appears to be significant in anticipating the physiological and behavioral demands of an aggressive episode, and the fall in 5-HT in its termination, dissociated from the actual execution of the behavior.

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Individual variations of plasma levels of hormones testosterone (T) and cortisol (C), before (pre) and after (post) Kumite (real fight) and Kata (ritualized fight) were measured in male karate athletes and analyzed in relation with the agonistic outcome (i.e. winning or losing the fight) and personality trait measures. T and C increased only during Kumite contest and pre- and post-competition C levels were higher in losers than winners. Losers showed higher levels of harm avoidance and anxiety as well as lower level of novelty seeking than winners. Importantly, novelty seeking negatively correlates with pre C and the higher the level of risk assessment, emotionality and insecurity indexes the higher the pre C level. In conclusion, personality traits might be an important factor asymmetry between athletes influencing both the probability of winning or losing an agonistic interaction and the different anticipatory endocrine response to the incipient fight.

The present study examined the influence of prior social experience on the effects of chlordiazepoxide (CDP; 5.0, 10.0 and 20.0 mg/kg) on intrasexual aggression in male mice. Prior to drug testing, animals were either individually housed or screened in dyadic encounters in a neutral cage. This novel method yielded four experimental groups comprising animals with different social experiences and different aggressive/defensive characteristics: 1) individually-housed males (I): 2) aggressive males (A); 3) counter-attacking males (C), which actively responded to but did not initiate attack; and 4) defeated males (D). Twenty-four hours after screening, animals were treated with CDP and subjected to a resident-intruder test with untreated intruders. Results indicated that the lowest dose of CDP (5 mg/kg) increased aggressive behaviour but only in A males. At higher doses (10-20 mg/kg), CDP reduced attacks towards intruders in A, C and I, but not D, males. In A and C males, the antiaggressive action of CDP was associated with a prosocial effect (increased social investigation), whereas in I males, reduced aggression was associated with an increase in fear-related behaviours. As these differential effects of CDP on intermale aggression cannot be fully explained by differences in behavioural baselines, present data highlight the importance of experiential background as a powerful variable in determining behavioural responses to benzodiazepines. Present findings therefore suggest that an understanding of drug effects on social behaviour demands consideration of biological variability in phenotype.