Animal Models: Implications for Human Aggression and Violence

The human capacity for uncontrolled aggressiveness and violence inflicts an awful and costly burden on society. Unfortunately, the current intervention strategies and treatment options for curbing aggression and violence are largely inadequate. Hence, a more fundamental knowledge about the social and neurobiological determinants of aggression is desperately needed. In particular, the interaction between environmental factors and the neurochemical substrates that causally underlies the shift from aggression to violence is in great need to be unraveled. Novel experimental laboratory models of violent-like aggression in rodents combined with newly emerging technologies for mapping and manipulating neuronal activity with anatomical, genetic, and temporal precision are indispensable to obtain this goal. This chapter presents some of the most significant developments made during the last decade in this preclinical animal research field that promise to significantly advance our understanding of the etiology, brain mechanisms, and potential therapeutic interventions of aggression and violence in humans.