Program & Abstract Book - EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009

EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009: Understanding Violence
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Poster Abstracts
an et h o l o g i c a l pe r s p e c t i v e o n vi o l e n c e
Natarajan, Deepa 1 ; Caramaschi, Doretta 1 ; deVries, Han 2 ;
deBoer, Sietse 1 ; Koolhaas, Jaap 1
1 Dept of Behavior Physiology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands;
2 Dept of Behavioral Biology, University of Utrecht, The
Netherlands
Bottlenecks to violence research have been manifold incl. lack of animal
models, limited methodologies (frequency, duration of aggression) and
objective definitions that cannot be implemented experimentally. These
factors apart, a prime concern has been in delineating violence from functional
aggression in animal models. The latter is identified as functional
since it has endpoints of ecological advantage incl. acquiring resources
and ranking in a given environment and hence a ubiquitous phenomenon
in the wild. We achieved this distinction using both, mouse strains that
were genetically selected for high/ low aggression as well as novel measures
of quantifying inter-male agonistic combats namely Threat/ (Attack
+ Chase), Offense/ Withdrawal ratios and context dependency. Sophisticated
methodologies incl. the first-order Markov chain analysis was also
carried out using frequency-based agonistic behavior transition matrices
of both the residents as well as their interaction with opponents. We thus,
identified violence as an un-inhibited (offense-oriented) form of aggression
regardless of sex, state (free-moving/ anaesthetized) and the opponent
subordination signals which is at once both socially dysfunctional as
well as context-independent maladaptive, leading to reduced individual/
population fitness. We thus report violence as the agonistic trait in the
short attack latency (SAL) mice while the agonistic trait is functional aggression
in Turku Aggressive (TA) and North Carolina (NC900) mouse
strains.
Natarajan D and Caramaschi D contributed equally to this abstract.
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