Elsevier

Brain Research

Volume 20, Issue 3, 15 June 1970, Pages 409-424
Brain Research

Cholinergic synapses in the lateral hypothalamus for the control of predatory aggression in the rat

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Summary

Direct central stimulation, via chronically implanted cannulas, of sites in the lateral hypothalamus with either carbachol, acetylcholine mixed with physostigmine, or neostigmine, facilitated frog-killing and mouse-killing in natural killer rats. The cholinergic stimulation was believed to have affected predatory aggression because of (a) the stereotyped nature of the killing response, (b) the lack of increased irritability in nearly all subjects, (c) the neuroanatomical correspondence to the hypothalamic areas in rat and cat which, when stimulated electrically, elicit predatory aggression. These results, as well as the effects of systemically administered cholinergic blocking agents, were found to be compatible with the hypothesis that acetylcholine is involved in the control of predatory aggression at the lateral hypothalamus.

The study also indicated that the lateral hypothalamic neural elements which regulate predatory aggression are distinct from those which regulate drinking, although both are sensitive to cholinergic stimulation.

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