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Serotonin and Aggression
Author(s) -
OLIVIER BEREND
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1196/annals.1330.022
Subject(s) - aggression , serotonergic , serotonin , neuroscience , 5 ht receptor , receptor , neurotransmitter , psychology , trait , neurotransmitter systems , biology , medicine , developmental psychology , central nervous system , dopamine , computer science , programming language
A bstract : The neurotransmitter serotonin (5‐HT) has been implicated in the modulation of aggression in animals and humans. A longstanding dogma that aggression and serotonergic activity are inversely related has to be abandoned in light of many new findings. Trait and state aggression are differentially regulated by the 5‐HT system and different 5‐HT receptors seem to be involved. Of the 14 different 5‐HT receptors, the 5‐HT 1B receptor, particularly the postsynaptically located 5‐HT 1B heteroreceptor, plays a highly selective role in the modulation of offensive aggression. We are still far from understanding the complex role played by the serotonergic system in the modulation of a complex set of behaviors like aggression.