Regional brain cholecystokinin changes as a function of friendly and aggressive social interactions in rats.
Cholecystokinin (CCK) is the most abundant neuropeptide in the mammalian brain, and has been implicated in the regulation of a diversity of emotions and motivations including negative affect and stress responses. In this experiment, we assayed levels of CCK (CCK4/5 and CCK8) from tissue homogenates in intruder animals 6 h after resident-intruder inter-male aggression. Intruder animals that demonstrated submissive behavior (freezing and 22-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations) had higher levels of CCK in the tegmentum and posterior cortex as compared to non-submissive (i.e., "Friendly") intruder animals. Ultrasonic vocalizations (22-kHz) were positively correlated with CCK levels in the tegmentum, posterior cortex and pituitary. These data suggest that CCK may play a role in the generation of negative affective states indexed by 22-kHz ultrasonic calls in certain regions of the brain.
J.P. Scott Center for Neuroscience, Mind and Behavior, Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA. jpankse@bgnet.bgsu.edu
Jaak
J
Panksepp
Jeff
J
Burgdorf
Margery C
MC
Beinfeld
Roger A
RA
Kroes
Joseph R
JR
Moskal
D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D002766:Cholecystokinin / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012934:Social Isolation; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000502:physiology
D002766:Cholecystokinin