The physiology of aggression: towards understanding violence

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Humans differ widely in how they deal with social conflict. While most people refrain from fighting or develop appropriate and well-controlled functional forms of aggression, others show extremely injurious and violent behaviour. These individual acts of unchecked aggression and violence impact deleteriously on society as a whole; interpersonal violence is among the leading causes of death worldwide in people aged 15-44. To develop adequate prevention strategies and treatment options, we urgently need to decipher the neurobiological causes of this abnormal behaviour. This thesis shows that violent forms of aggression are also present in house mice. The symptoms are strikingly similar to human violence in terms of genetic predisposition, life history of excessive aggression, lack of control, inhibition and social skills, drive in achieving dominance, lack of behavioural flexibility and tendency to adopt routines. Like human antisocial-disorder patients and psychopaths, these violent mice show fearlessness and low autonomic tone. Within the brain, the activity of the serotonergic circuit of the prefrontal cortex—the region involved in planning and controlling emotional behaviour—is low. The main short-term brake on the serotonin system, the serotonin-1A receptor protein, becomes increasingly active in the transition from functional aggression to violence. The study of these violent mice may in the future help to develop effective, evidence-based programmes of prevention and intervention against human violence.

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	Volledige dissertatie

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