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Reduced Aggressive Behaviour in Mice with Targeted Disruption of the Oxytocin Gene
Abstract
Oxytocin (OT) has been reported to mediate aggressive and affiliative behaviours in several species. The behavioural role of OT has been established with physiological manipulations that potentially affected blood pressure, which may have indirectly affected the behaviours under study. To provide converging evidence of the physiological role of OT in aggressive behavior, wild type (WT), heterozygous (OT-/+), and homozygous (OT-/-) mutant mice were tested in two aggression paradigms. In general, there was no significant difference in aggressiveness between WT and OT-/+ mice. However, there were significant reductions in the duration of aggressive behaviors among OT-/- animals, especially in agonistic encounters within neutral arenas. The OT-/- mice did not exhibit any sensorimotor deficits or display any altered general anxiety levels that may have accounted for the observed reduction in aggressive behavior. These data indicate that aggression is mediated in part by OT in mice and that increased aggressiveness is not an obligatory phenotypic result of targeted genetic disruption of any gene.
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“In mice, there is evidence that in utero exposure to Oxt is important for normal intermale aggressive behavior in adulthood.”
From Oxytocin during Development: Possible Organizational Effects on Behavior (2015) · cites this paper as [98]
In the citing paper
“Specifically, male Oxt−/− mice that are born to null mutant dams show heightened aggressive behavior in adulthood (97, 98).”
From Oxytocin during Development: Possible Organizational Effects on Behavior (2015) · cites this paper as [98]
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Items 101–134 of 134
Værøy, H., Lahaye, E., Dubessy, C., Bénard, M., Nicol, M., Cherifi, Y., Takhlidjt, S., do Rego, J. L., do-Rego, J.-C., Chartrel, N., et al. (2023) · Discover Mental Health · doi:10.1007/s44192-023-00048-z · Cited by 9
“For instance, a significant reduction in the duration of attacks but not their frequency was observed among OT-KO mice [43].”
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Neuroendocrinology and Behavior
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Metadata
- Authors
- DeVries, A. C., Young III, W. S., & Nelson, R. J.
- Affiliations
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Corresponding author
- DeVries, A. Courtney
- Venue
- Journal of Neuroendocrinology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1997-05
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 363-368
- ISSN
- 0953-8194 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2826
- OpenAlex
- W1989283759
- Cited by
- 134
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 7.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroendocrinology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Syracuse University
- National Institutes of Health (5r01hd022201-06)
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH-57535, R01MH057535)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD 22201)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuropeptides and Animal Physiology
- Keywords
- oxytocin, aggression, gene disruption, affiliative behavior, agonistic encounters, anxiety, sensorimotor deficits, blood pressure
- MeSH terms
- Aggression, Animals, Exploratory Behavior, Genetic Code, Heterozygote, Homozygote, Oxytocin, Psychomotor Performance, Mice, Knockout, Mice
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