Aggression – hormonal mechanisms in aggression Flashcards
What is the role of the limbic system?
Coordinates behaviours which satisfy motivational and emotional urges, including fear and aggression.
What are two key structures in the limbic system?
Amygdala and hippocampus.
What is the role of the amygdala?
It is part of the limbic system and evaluate the emotional importance of sensory information and prompts and appropriate response.
What does neural explanations of aggression say about the amygdala?
Neural explanations suggest certain areas of the amygdala are stimulated electrically aggression may be displayed through various behaviours.
It also suggest that if the amygdala was removed, an animal or person would no longer react with aggression from the same stimuli .
It is also thought to be responsible for moderating testosterone levels which has been linked to aggression if it was damaged or malfunctioned through a tumour or atypical development this could raise testosterone making aggression level levels higher.
What is the hippocampus involved in in terms of neural mechanisms?
The hippocampus is involved in the formation of long-term memories. These memories allow animals to compare current threats with similar past experiences to assess whether they should respond with either aggression or fear.
Damaged or impaired HIPAA campus would prevent the nervous system from putting things into the right context and caused the Magala to respond to sensory stimuli inappropriately possibly through aggression.
Why is serotonin linked to depression?
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter which has been linked to aggression. Normal levels of serotonin are believed to exert a calming theory effect on neural firing within the brain. serotonin inhibits the amygdala which controls various emotional responses, including fear and anger making their expression less likely.
However low levels of this neurotransmitter removed this inhibitory effect resulting in individuals having less control over their impulsive aggressive behaviour (serotonin deficiency hypothesis).
What hormone has been linked with aggression?
Testosterone.
What did Dabb (1990) find about the link between testosterone on aggression?
Testosterone is an androgen and produces male characteristics one of which is believed to be status seeking domineering behaviour such as aggression. increase levels are believed to raise levels of aggression and aggressive responses to perceived provocation testosterone peaks at the start of puberty.
How did Dabbs investigate testosterone levels?
He measured salivary testosterone in violent and nonviolent criminals. the highest testosterone level found in those with the history of mostly violent crimes supporting this link. However, with this we still cannot be sure of the cause and effect as some theories propose aggressive individuals produce more testosterone and not vice versa.
What is another theory of how testosterone links to aggression?
Testosterone acts to sensitise neural circuits in the brain in the early days after birth causing changes which affect aggression levels in adulthood.
Another explanation suggest testosterone affects activity in the orbital frontal cortex of the brain which is involved in inhibition and decision-making high levels of testosterone in an individual is believed to reduce the activity in the orbital frontal cortex making them more prone to reacting aggressively in emotionally charged situations.
