Neurochemical and Pharmacological Animal Studies
Several types of aggressive behavior have been investigated with neurochemical and pharmacological studies. These include sham rage in cats, aggression induced by foot shock in rats, isolation induced aggression in mice, spontaneous aggression following drugs or lesions, and predatory aggression. Generally speaking, these reduce themselves to two separate forms of aggression or attack behavior, namely, affective aggression and predatory aggression. The two types have different neuroanatomical bases and may also have different neurochemical bases.
Sham Rage Behavior in Cats.—
The phenomenon of sham rage may be generated by either surgically produced lesions or electrical stimulation of the brain. Surgically, sham rage is produced by transection of the upper brain stem, anterior to the caudal pothalamus, so as to remove the neocortex and other telencephalic structures from the rest of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Animals so treated display periodic fits of rage