Table Of ContentCurrent Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences 17
Klaus A. Miczek
Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg E ditors
Neuroscience
of Aggression
Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences
Volume 17
Series editors
Mark A. Geyer, La Jolla, CA, USA
Bart A. Ellenbroek, Wellington, New Zealand
Charles A. Marsden, Nottingham, UK
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Klaus A. Miczek Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
(cid:129)
Editors
Neuroscience of Aggression
123
Editors
Klaus A.Miczek Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
MosesHuntProfessor of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry
Psychiatry,Pharmacology andPsychotherapy
andNeuroscience Central InstituteofMental Health
TuftsUniversity Mannheim
Medford, MA Germany
USA
ISSN 1866-3370 ISSN 1866-3389 (electronic)
ISBN 978-3-662-44280-7 ISBN 978-3-662-44281-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-44281-4
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Preface
Despite its relevance to science as well as society, aggression remains an
understudied topic in the basic neurosciences and in the psychopharmacological
managementandtreatmentofpatients.Thepresentvolumeisintendedtoappealto
both clinical practitioners and preclinical researchers who seek to enhance their
understanding of basic molecular and cellular processes, neural circuitry, and
behavioral mechanisms that are critical for the motivation and expression of
aggressive behavior. The current contributions advance our insights into neuro-
biological mechanisms and begin to identify genes and gene networks which—in
interaction with environmental triggers—render aggressive behavior more or less
likely to occur. It is evident that the current research proceeds in a more rational,
mechanistic way relative to its serendipitous beginnings. For example, long before
thesitesandmechanismsofactionoflithiumorbenzodiazepineswereunderstood,
it was discovered that they calm agitated and aggressive individuals (Cade 1949;
Randall et al. 1960).
From a psychiatric perspective, research on aggression has been impeded by
inadequate recognition of these behavioral domains in consecutive versions of the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, discouraging the development of compounds
and interventions with specific anti-aggressive effects. One cardinal criterion for
novel medications in this area should be their degree of specificity for reducing
aggressive behavior relative to undesirable adverse effect profiles. Quantitative
ethologicalmethodsenablethecomparisonofreducingaggressiveactswitheffects
on other elements in the behavioral repertoire to learn about the behavioral speci-
ficity of novel compounds.
A fundamental challenge in aggression research is the distinction of the
neurobiological mechanisms mediating escalated pathological aggressive behavior
relative to those for species-typical patterns of behavior that are necessary for the
survivaloftheorganism(Miczeketal.2013).Inhumans,ofcourse,thisdistinction
is further compounded by legal, ethical, and societal restriction on aggression no
matter the biological concomitants. The neural circuits of different kinds of mam-
malian aggression have begun to be delineated by immunohistochemistry of
immediate-earlygeneexpression,intracranialmicroinjection,invivomicrodialysis,
v
vi Preface
optogenetics techniques in experimental animals, and high resolution functional
imaging techniques. It is now feasible to conceptualize neurocircuits for different
kinds ofaggressive behaviortoencompass nuclei inthemesencephalonprojecting
to hypothalamic, amygdaloid, septal, and hippocampal sub-nuclei, loops between
striatumandthalamuswithfrontalandprefrontalstructuresandimportantfeedback
to limbic and mesencephalic nuclei (chapters by Kruk; Gobrogge; Bedrosian and
Nelson; Barr and Driscoll; Takahashi and Miczek; Haller; Morrison and Melloni;
de Almeida et al.). Identifying not only the neural structures and projections, but
also the precise molecular processes within these critical cell groups that mediate
escalated aggressive behavior remains an urgent task.
A most instructive example is our emerging understanding of the role of sero-
tonin, the most intensively investigated neurotransmitter system that has been
linked to aggression. It is evident that the classic serotonin deficiency hypothesis
that associates defects in synthesis, release, receptor activation, or metabolism to a
heightened propensity to engage in aggressive behavior has been replaced with a
framework that incorporates a much more nuanced set of modulatory and regula-
tory mechanisms. The current contributions (Barr and Driscoll; Takahashi and
Miczek; Morrison and Melloni; Bedrosian and Nelson; Gobrogge; Beck et al.;
Buckholtz et al.) illustrate how serotonergic activity is modulated by a cascade of
directandindirectsystemsthatrangefromnitricoxidesynthase,neuropeptidesand
neurosteroids to excitatory and inhibitory amino acids and thereby reduce or
intensify aggressive behavior.
We invite you to be inspired by the current contributions which we hope will
renewinterestintheneurobiologyofaggressivebehaviorandreactivatethislargely
neglected area of research.
References
CadeJFJ(1949)Lithiumsaltinthetreatmentofpsychoticexcitement.MedJAust2:349–352
Miczek KA, de Boer SF, Haller J (2013) Excessive aggression as model of violence: a critical
evaluationofcurrentpreclinicalmethods.Psychopharmacology226:445-458
Randall LO, Schallek W, Heise FA et al (1960) The psychosedative properties of methamino-
diazepoxide.JPharmacolExpTher129:163–171
Medford Klaus A. Miczek
Mannheim Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
Contents
Part I Preclinical Research
Neurogenetics of Aggressive Behavior: Studies in Rodents. . . . . . . . . . 3
Aki Takahashi and Klaus A. Miczek
Neurogenetics of Aggressive Behavior: Studies in Primates . . . . . . . . . 45
Christina S. Barr and Carlos Driscoll
The Glucocorticoid/Aggression Relationship in Animals
and Humans: An Analysis Sensitive to Behavioral
Characteristics, Glucocorticoid Secretion Patterns, and Neural
Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
József Haller
Sensory, Hormonal, and Neural Basis of Maternal Aggression
in Rodents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Rosa Maria Martins de Almeida, Annabel Ferreira and Daniella Agrati
Nitric Oxide and Serotonin Interactions in Aggression . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Tracy A. Bedrosian and Randy J. Nelson
Hypothalamic Attack: A Wonderful Artifact or a Useful
Perspective on Escalation and Pathology in Aggression?
A Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Menno R. Kruk
The Role of Serotonin, Vasopressin, and Serotonin/Vasopressin
Interactions in Aggressive Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Thomas R. Morrison and Richard H. Melloni Jr.
vii
viii Contents
Sex, Drugs, and Violence: Neuromodulation of Attachment
and Conflict in Voles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Kyle L. Gobrogge
Part II Clinical Research
Gene–Environment Interactions in the Etiology of Human
Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Manfred Laucht, Daniel Brandeis and Katrin Zohsel
NeurobiologicalMechanismsforImpulsive-Aggression:TheRole
of MAOA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Hayley M. Dorfman, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
and Joshua W. Buckholtz
Early Development of Physical Aggression and Early Risk
Factors for Chronic Physical Aggression in Humans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Richard E. Tremblay
Violence Among People with Schizophrenia: Phenotypes
and Neurobiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Sheilagh Hodgins, Magdalena J. Piatosa and Boris Schiffer
Psychopathy and Aggression: When Paralimbic Dysfunction
Leads to Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Nathaniel E. Anderson and Kent A. Kiehl
Antisocial and Callous Behaviour in Children. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Essi Viding, Ana Seara-Cardoso and Eamon J. McCrory
Aggression in Children and Adolescents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Arlette Buchmann, Sarah Hohmann, Daniel Brandeis,
Tobias Banaschewski and Luise Poustka
Translational Clinical Neuroscience Perspectives
on the Cognitive and Neurobiological Mechanisms Underlying
Alcohol-Related Aggression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
Anne Beck, Adrienne J. Heinz and Andreas Heinz
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Part I
Preclinical Research
