Aggression, Aggression-Related Psychopathologies and Their Models
Absztrakt :
"Neural mechanisms of aggression and violence are often studied in the laboratoryby means of animal models. A multitude of such models were developed over thelast decades, which, however, were rarely if ever compared systematically from apsychopathological perspective. By overviewing the main models, I show here thatthe classical ones exploited the natural tendency of animals to defend their territory,to fight for social rank, to defend themselves from imminent dangers and to defendtheir pups. All these forms of aggression are functional and adaptive"," consequently,not necessarily appropriate for modeling non-natural states, e.g., aggression-relatedpsychopathologies. A number of more psychopathology-oriented models were alsodeveloped over the last two decades, which were based on the etiological factorsof aggression-related mental disorders. When animals were exposed to such factors,their aggressiveness suffered durable changes, which were deviant in the meaningthat they broke the evolutionarily conserved rules that minimize the dangers associatedwith aggression. Changes in aggression were associated with a series of dysfunctionsthat affected other domains of functioning, like with aggression-related disorders whereaggression is just one of the symptoms. The comparative overview of such modelssuggests that while the approach still suffers from a series of deficits, they holdthe important potential of extending our knowledge on aggression control over thepathological domain of this behavior."
Neural mechanisms of aggression and violence are often studied in the laboratoryby means of animal models. A multitude of such models were developed over thelast decades, which, however, were rarely if ever compared systematically from apsychopathological perspective. By overviewing the main models, I show here thatthe classical ones exploited the natural tendency of animals to defend their territory,to fight for social rank, to defend themselves from imminent dangers and to defendtheir pups. All these forms of aggression are functional and adaptive, consequently,not necessarily appropriate for modeling non-natural states, e.g., aggression-relatedpsychopathologies. A number of more psychopathology-oriented models were alsodeveloped over the last two decades, which were based on the etiological factorsof aggression-related mental disorders. When animals were exposed to such factors,their aggressiveness suffered durable changes, which were deviant in the meaningthat they broke the evolutionarily conserved rules that minimize the dangers associatedwith aggression. Changes in aggression were associated with a series of dysfunctionsthat affected other domains of functioning, like with aggression-related disorders whereaggression is just one of the symptoms. The comparative overview of such modelssuggests that while the approach still suffers from a series of deficits, they holdthe important potential of extending our knowledge on aggression control over thepathological domain of this behavior.