Directed Attack Elicited from Hypothalamus

TLDR

The hypothalamus’s role in aggression is unclear; decorticate cats exhibit sham rage without directed attack, yet the hypothalamus is known to coordinate muscular and glandular responses. The study aimed to clarify the hypothalamus’s contribution to the perceptual and emotional aspects of aggression. Electrical stimulation of the hypothalamus in intact cats induced rage-like patterns but did not produce directed attack, leading the authors to conclude the hypothalamus has a minimal role in affective experience and behavior.

Abstract

The role of the hypothalamus in aggressive behavior remains unclear. The heightened rage elicited in decorticate cats^1-3by the application of sensory stimuli is often characterized as sham rage or as a pseudoaffective response. The failure of the animals to show a directed attack, which was thought attributable to decortication, left open the question of the character of the response. Masserman¹⁰found in intact cats that electrical stimulation of the hypothalamus produced patterns expressive of rage, which despite the presence of the cortex failed to culminate in directed attack. He concluded that the hypothalamus plays a minimal role in affective experience and behavior. The question is in respect to the role that the hypothalamus plays in the perceptual and emotional part of the reaction. There is general agreement that the hypothalamus integrates the muscular and glandular responses which accompany aggression. Hess and Brügger,⁶Hunsperger,⁷and Nakao,