Imaging the neural circuitry and chemical control of aggressive motivation

Abstract

Background: With the advent of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in awake animals it is possible to resolve patterns of neuronal activity across the entire brain with high spatial and temporal resolution. Synchronized changes in neuronal activity across multiple brain areas can be viewed as functional neuroanatomical circuits coordinating the thoughts, memories and emotions for particular behaviors. To this end, fMRI in conscious rats combined with 3D computational analysis was used to identifying the putative distributed neural circuit involved in aggressive motivation and how this circuit is affected by drugs that block aggressive behavior.

Awake Rat Pharmacological Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a Translational Pharmacodynamic Biomarker: Metabotropic Glutamate 2/3 Agonist Modulation of Ketamine-Induced Blood Oxygenation Level Dependence Signals

“…A method of reducing and controlling head motion artifacts when imaging awake rats has been characterized previously (Chin et al, 2008a) using a dedicated animal holder (Ekam Imaging Inc., Shrewsbury, MA), which includes a head restrainer and a cylindrical body tube. This method of imaging awake animals has been used for fMRI in several studies (Lahti et al, 1999;Chin et al, 2008a,b;Ferris et al, 2008). In brief, the head restrainer contains a half-circular headpiece and a blunted ear bar positioned over the ears and fitted into the ear canals.…”

Tratamento farmacológico da impulsividade e do comportamento agressivo

“…For example, serotonergic dysfunction can be observed in impulsive aggression in patients with depression or borderline personality disorder 3 and the brain circuit involved is the same across the different psychiatric disorders. 16 As they share the same neurobiological aspects, the different manifestations of impulsive aggressive behavior, occurring in a variety of psychiatric disorders, can be dealt with by applying the same pharmacological approach acting on key targets, such as serotonin or prefrontal cortex. The drugs that have been proven effective in the treatment of impulsive aggressive behavior are the mood stabilizers lithium, carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine, valproate and topiramate, the anti-psychotics clozapine, olanzapine, quetipine among others, the beta-adrenergic blockers, the 5-HT 1A receptor partial agonist buspirone, the essential fatty acid omega-3 and antiandrogens.…”

An alarm pheromone increases the responsivity of amygdaline-hippocampal Neurons - Una feromona de alarma incrementa la responsividad de neuronas amigdalino-hipocampales

“…2,3 From amygdaline nuclei, medial amygdala integrates olfactory information coming from the main and accessory olfactory system. 4,5 The chemical cues perceived by olfactory system seems to modulate maternal behavior, 6 aggression, 7 and reproductive behavior, 8 and, inclusively, they allow the identification of individuals of the same species. Also, the interaction of olfactory structures with medial amygdala facilitates retrieval olfactory information leading to fear expression, 10 including alarm messages, such as the presence of a predator identified by its odor.…”