title: The time course of attack priming effects in female golden hamsters.
abstract: In two experiments using different procedures we have found that attack latency, having been reduced by a previous priming attack, returns to baseline levels over a 24 hr period. In both experiments an unexpected, transient increase in attack latency occured 2 hr postpriming. The procedure of the second experiment precludes the possibility that this is a circadian effect. There were no cumulative effects of successive priming attacks suggesting that, under the conditions of these experiments, each attack "resets" the animals' aggressive state. The effects of a single brief agonistic encounter are substantial and persistent enough to be involved in such phenomena as the escalation and redirection of aggression observed in field studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Physiology, New York State Psychiatric Institute, 722 W. 168th St., New York, N.Y. 10032 U.S.A.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Potegal
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Popken