Hormonal Pathways Regulating Intermale And Interfemale Aggression

Publisher Summary Offensive aggression between conspecific males and conspecific females can serve as model systems to exemplify our understanding of androgenic effects on aggressive behavior. This form of aggression between same-sex conspecifics is a productive behavior because it determines dominance status and access to resources. The use of offensive aggression in males as a model is based on its widely documented dependence on testosterone (T), the principal testicular androgen. Including females as a representative system for exemplifying androgenic effects on aggression seem unusual, given the numerous failures to identify a positive relationship between T and this behavior in female mammals. However, several studies clearly demonstrated that females housed in small groups displayed aggression toward other females, juvenile males, or gonadectomized adult males. Studies also showed that dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), an androgenic neurosteroid synthesized in the brains of humans and other mammals, played an important role in regulating the aggressive behavior. Research with animal models demonstrates the complex nature of hormonal modulation and the need for increasingly refined regulatory models of offensive aggression. The complexity and extent of interactions also indicates that focusing on a single genetic or physiological marker, as a cause of aggression is a difficult proposition with limited utility.