Lateral hypothalamic control of killing: evidence for a cholinoceptive mechanism.
In rats that would not ordinarily kill mice, lateral hypothalamic injection of crystalline carbachol, a cholinomimetic, elicited killing. Norepinephrine, amphetamine, serotonin, and sodium salts were ineffective at the same site. Carbachol was ineffective when injected into the medial, dorsal, or ventral hypothalamus. As additional evidence for a cholinoceptive mechanism, neostigmine elicited killing, and, in spontaneous killers, methyl atropine blocked it. The results indicate that the lateral hypothalamus contains a cholinoceptive component of an innate system that activates killing, and anticholinergic treatment can be used as a means of suppressing killing.
D000374:Aggression / Q000187:drug effects*; D000818:Animals; D002217:Carbachol / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000187:drug effects*; D051379:Mice; D010276:Parasympatholytics / Q000494:pharmacology; D010277:Parasympathomimetics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051381:Rats
D010276:Parasympatholytics; D010277:Parasympathomimetics; D002217:Carbachol