Brain mechanisms for offense, defense, and submission

Abstract

A preliminary attempt is made to analyze the intraspecific aggressive behavior of mammals in terms of specific neural circuitry. The results of stimulation, lesion, and recording studies of aggressive behavior in cats and rats are reviewed and analyzed in terms of three hypothetical motivational systems: offense, defense, and submission. A critical distinction, derived from ethological theory, is made between motivating stimuli that simultaneously activate functional groupings of motor patterning mechanisms, and releasing and directing stimuli that are necessary for the activation of discrete motor patterning mechanisms. It is suggested that motivating stimuli activate pathways that converge upon sets of homogeneous neurons, called motivational mechanisms, whose activity determines the motivational state of the animal.A defense motivational mechanism is hypothesized to be located in the midbrain central gray. In addition to tactile, auditory, and visual inputs from the paleospinothalamic tract, lateral lemniscus, and (perhaps) from the pretectum, it may receive inputs from a major forebrain pathway whose functional significance is not yet understood.A submission motivational mechanism is also thought to be located in the central gray. In addition to inputs for defense, it is thought to receive a necessary input from a “consociate (social familiarity cue) modulator” located in the ventromedial hypothalamus, which can switch behavior from defense to submission. The location of the hypothetical offense motivational mechanism is not known, although the pathways by which it is activated are traced in some detail.Brain mechanisms of aggression in primitive mammals and in primates are apparently similar to those in rats and cats.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder as a Disturbance of Security Motivation.

“…A motivation with security as its goal is not among the five special motivations recognized classically in psychology, which are hunger, pain, sex, maternal, and exploratory motivations (Hebb, 1966). However, ethologically oriented psychologists (e.g., Adams, 1979;Bolles & Fanselow, 1980;Gilbert, 1989;Marks & Nesse, 1994;Masterson & Crawford, 1982;Trower, Gilbert, & Sherling, 1990) have advanced the notion of a motivationally fundamental "defense system" concerned with the detection and amelioration of both physical and social potential threats to security. In general terms, motivation refers to the tendency of the whole organism to be active in a selective and organized way, and special motivation refers to that tendency that is also biologically primitive and necessary for species survival (Hebb, 1966).…”

Comparative analysis of the mechanisms of attack and defense among higher brain animals

“…In this study, the resident-intruder model is used to elicit aggression, either attack or defense behavior, in an interactive dyadic encounter, when the resident initiates attacks against the intruder [22][23][24][25][26]. The competition for food will further aggravate the levels of aggression that strongly resemble the natural situation in which animals establish and defend territories or compete for food to survive in the social group.…”

Individual strategies of aggressive and non-aggressive male mice in encounters with trained aggressive residents

“…However, in our study rearing conditions were similar for all the mice, and, moreover, we measured aggression levels as attack latency scores, thereby avoiding actual fighting. With regard to age, it has been reported that only sexually mature intruders appear to elicit attack by mature males (Thor & Flannelly 1976b), which may be related to the androgen-dependence of the attack-eliciting properties of intruders (Thor & Flannelly 1976a;Adams 1979). The intruders used in the present study were ofsimilar age, but baseline plasma testosterone levels differ between the two lines (with the SAL line having the higher levels; Van Oortmerssen et al 1987).…”