Question: Why do people engage in aggressive behaviour (some, as we know, rather more than others)?
Answer: Because they enjoy it.
There’s a bit of a flutter on the internet (see here and here) about research coming out of Vanderbilt University. Studying mice, Maria Couppis and Craig Kennedy have found that aggression can be as emotionally rewarding as food or sex.
The neurotransmitter dopamine has been implicated in nearly every experience we consider rewarding, such as love, drugs, eating, and sex. Indeed, the mesolimbic dopamine pathway is referred to as the reward system of the brain. Dopamine is necessary for reinforcement, e.g. the ex-smoker’s craving brought about by the whiff of cigarette smoke.
Now a direct connection has been drawn between dopamine and aggression. In the experiement the male home mouse continually pushed a button to let in an intruder mouse which it then aggressed. When treated with a dopamine antagonist (blocking the activity of the dopamine) the home mouse decreased its button-pushing. (For a discussion of the experiment see here.)
(Incidentally, it is important not to conflate aggression and violence. Aggression is dominating behaviour. For the mice aggressive behavior included tail rattle, an aggressive sideways stance, boxing and biting – two non-violent and two non-violent behaviours.)
“We learned from these experiments that an individual will intentionally seek out an aggressive encounter solely because they experience a rewarding sensation from it,” Kennedy said. “This shows for the first time that aggression, on its own, is motivating, and that the well-known positive reinforcer dopamine plays a critical role.”
Not that surprising?
I suspect that lovefraud/blog readers who have been on the receiving end of aggression won’t be surprised by these findings. Says Dr. Bliss at Maggies’ farm, “I cannot speak about mice, but every psychiatrist – and every person – knows that this is a fact for human beings.”
Any comments?
A query I have is runs something like this. Many commentators on this blog speak of increased assertiveness, anger, determination, etc. which has enabled them to get through relationships with psychopaths, to gain self-respect, and to make new lives. Would you say that you have learned to better access aggression? And if so, is there pleasure in it?
Okay, I read the study. Few points:
1) What nobody seems to be talking about is that this is not aggression for the sake of aggression, but aggression in response to an intruder by a creature whose life depends on responding aggressively to intruders.
2) Aggression in animals does not necessarily translate to how aggression is handled in human beings in everyone, though certainly it would apply to a certain percentage of the population.
For example, when an ovulating female pig is exposed to a pheromone from a boar’s saliva, the scent travels along the olfactory nerve directly into the amygdala, stimulating the release of neurotransmitters, the result of which is that she becomes immediately and completely paralyzed in a spread-legged mating posture! Naturally, this fact has led to the marketing of a number of pheromone based men’s colognes designed to produce the same effect in the human female! (Nice try, guys!)
If you give rats in a cage access to both food and cocaine, the rats will consume the cocaine and ignore the food. And they will end up starving themselves to death with a limitless supply of food available. And, of course, that makes us think of the alcoholic who has gin for breakfast, bourbon for lunch, and brandy for dinner – ending up in the hospital with a severe case of malnutrition.
Now, in the human being, (as in other creatures), the sensation that is experienced as orgasm is the same release of chemicals that stimulate the same part of the brain that makes the rats so happy. Some scientists refer to this in technical jargon as the “do-it-again” center. [cf. Burnham and Phelan.] When this center is stimulated, whatever activity is associated with it will be sought again and again.
We have, it seems, a lot of “do-it-again” chemicals with a lot of “do-it-again” receptor sites all over our bodies. Certain foods in different people act in this way. Some people feel euphoria when they achieve victory over a rival in some sort of competition. Aside from the most obvious example of sex, these are examples of other things that can cause the secretion of these “do-it-again” chemicals.
When we take certain drugs, our brain acts as if the “natural” neurotransmitter were flooding the system. The brain thinks we have done something really great such as finding food or warmth while, in reality, we may be hunkered down in a flophouse with a hypodermic of heroin in our arm. Our pleasure centers know only that they are bathed in chemical bliss. Never mind that the first time we tried it, we were disgusted and repelled by the setting, the process, all the external elements. Once we have received that reward, we are convinced that this nasty setting, this ignominious behavior that is clearly damaging to the self, is “okay” and “desirable” for the reward we are going to get.
When cocaine is snorted up the nose, it heads straight for the dopamine re-uptake sites and blocks them. The “feel good sensation” is not, however, from the drug; but from the fact that dopamine is flooding your cells, binding with the dopamine receptors like crazy, unable to be reabsorbed. And the brain only knows one thing: this feels GREAT! Crack cocaine reportedly produces a more intense sensation of pleasure than any natural act, including orgasm! And, take note that it is from the body’s OWN chemical that this pleasure is experienced!
Morphine and Heroin work in a slightly different way. They mimic endorphins which trigger the release of dopamine. So, instead of the sensation occurring because the natural flow of dopamine is not reabsorbed, it occurs because there is too much dopamine to be absorbed!
But, there is something very curious about this: it seems that with repeated use of cocaine, heroin or morphine, the “fake endorphin” that binds with the opiate receptor and sends a signal into the cell body to release more dopamine, the body reacts by reducing the number of receptors! With fewer receptors, the effects of the drug – as well as the body’s normal ability to bind dopamine that is naturally present – plummets. And, without the normal flow of dopamine into a normal number of receptors, the brain experiences “withdrawal” which is interpreted quite literally as “pain.” It is the agony of a mind that can feel no pleasure at all.
Now, I have not been able to find any studies that suggest that the more dopamine secretion a person experiences from the body’s own chemicals in the “normal” way, that the number of receptors diminishes. However, the very fact that the “high” of cocaine is the body’s own chemical, and that is what happens in that case, suggests that this is so. This means that each time a person succeeds in some way in attaining that “feel good” moment – no matter how it is achieved – the more will be required to experience that same level of feeling again. This may be why “love states” so rapidly diminish and turn into battles to produce threat of loss so that it can be averted and thereby produce the “rush of dopamine.” That is to say: the more that is experienced, the less it CAN be experienced; so it becomes a physiological/psychological “carrot and stick.”
But, even in such situations, the point arrives when the body simply can no longer meet the demand and nothing works anymore. How soon this point is reached depends on many factors.
I wonder if aggression which results in neurochemical “rewards” works the same way. Is the person actually damaging their system this way?
Laura: Man! You are one helluva good science writer. Can you speculate why the body might act to diminish receptor cells? That’s so interesting. Can you think of a Darwinian reason?
Secret Monster: Would you say the sense of fulfillment that comes to you from having made someone unhappy is equal to the one you get from producing happiness in another? Ie, is the reaction less important than the fact you got a reaction?
Dopamine secretion can be normal but receptor numbers increase or decrease in response to a variey of other stimuli since there is a lot of integration of the system. This allows for adjusting the sensitivity of the system’s response to dopamine in order to maintain homeostasis. Gonadal hormone receptor numbers increase or decrease with the menstrual cycle, for example. Better yet, during the mating season in some songbirds, the dopamine receptors numbers in the vocal control system significantly increase but then go back to normal during the off season.
One of the problems with continued methamphetamine use, which sociopaths are susceptable to, not necessarily psychopaths (some never touch drugs) is that it not only keeps the drug longer in the synapse. It also causes more dopamine to be continuously released from vesicles. It may or may not help to elucidate some of the mechanisms involved in aggressive action.
Vesicles inside the cell store unreleased dopamine until a signal is sent for them to go to the membrane and release it into the synapse. Meth causes vesicle release of dopamine INSIDE the cytoplasm of the cell as well as uncontrolled release at the synapse. If it spills in the cytoplasm it is quickly degraded. With prolonged dopamine in the synapse receptor numbers decline-homeostasis must be maintained. It is like a system fighting to keep things normal.
Eventually when vesicle dopamine is degraded and synaptic dopamine is done there is craving for more drugs in hopes of stimulating the system again. So an addict takes more and more drugs with diminishing returns. But maybe a good clinician can correct me if I’m wrong on that part.
What I do understand is that the oxidation of dopamine causes free radicals which can be toxic. An overly stimulated cell that respond to dopamine will die with constant bombardment. This may be why an attempt is first made to reduce sensitivity by decreasing receptor numbers. But with this constant emptying of vesicles, dealing with free radicals and prolonged synaptic dopamine, there is burn out. Inevitably the and dopamine receiving cells die. 18- 25 percent of these cells in the striatum die within the first 24 hours after a high dose of methamphetamine. This area is part of the motivational control system which includes goal-directed movement including aggressive action. If no receptors are there for dopamine to bind-no receiver of the signal- the terminals of the cells that produce dopamine will degenerate as they become toxic-within 36 hours after meth. Lots of uncontrolled movement occurs while this stuff is happening. In animal models nasty stuff like destroying everything around them and when thats done, ripping out their own flesh. This stuff isn’t included in a lot of the literature. Neither is the fact that for whatever reason, some individuals under the same conditions never do this. Instead they sit quietly in a corner and do nothing until the drug is out of their system. Then they go back to normal activities until brain tissue is collected and analyzed. Haven’t yet found the individual differences between the two types in connections regulating aggressive drive except amygdala-cortical connections so that may be eventually worked out. The amygdals-cortical differences are more evident in reactive aggression, as is expected if the animal perceives a treat rather than aggression to be aggressive. I’m a novice with this stuff regarding humans so I am open to data.
Lesley: Reminder, I don’t get fulfillment from specifically making people unhappy, in fact, I find specifically making people unhappy to be counter productive to my overall agenda (whatever it may be with that specific person, and also to my long term goals). So the unhappiness isn’t the goal, it’s a byproduct when I make mistakes and my actions are discovered.
The pleasure, for me, is in getting away with it. The excitement comes from pushing it to near ludicrous points and still getting away with it. Sometimes I don’t, and people are unhappy.
Making people happy – It depends on what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. Getting my wife a nice present and receiving the attention that surrounds that is… nice. But it doesn’t compare.
I’m generally a nice guy, in that I’m always willing to lend a hand if I have the time, or volunteer to do the stuff I know others hate. I can convince myself that some of this is just because I don’t mind, but ultimately, it’s solidifying the image I want to portray. It, in and of itself, doesn’t give me the same sort of rush or pleasure.
SecretMonster
SM, that’s exactly what I figured out about my X P. He portrays himself as a truthful, honest, trustworthy guy, but would ultimately let you contract his disease if you dont protect yourself. I thought he was intelligent guy, or at least he seems that way, but I’m not so sure he is ‘learning’ from his mistakes. I have found out he has hooked up with others in this town, and did not disclose his HIV status to them, and infact lied about it. And that was AFTER I found out. I can’t quite comprehend why he continues to lie to people, when it’s quite obvious that when you lie and someone finds out- they get pissed and tell other people. After all, that’s how I found out. So why does he continue to lie to people? Doesnt he understand that people will eventually find out? Or does he not care? What’s your take?
To the “Secretmonster”,
“Being aware of”, and “being sensitive to the feelings of another”, (even if you don’t feel the emotions yourself), stops a normal person from hurting those people “they care about”. The BEST of the psychopaths/narcissists/ASPDs/Antisocials, are very aware of and very senstive to the feelings of the other person, and use that information to either hurt (or NOT) the other person, depending upon which will give them a power fix. Their relationships are not about “caring”, they are about exploitation. . . so I specifically left out . . the words “they care about”. Bottom line . . I feel sorry Secretmonster that they are crippled.
RE: HIV
This man is committing premediated murder.
Go to the police, public health dept.
It’s illegal, immoral and evilnot disclose that diagnosis.
SM: Re ‘ludicrous points’ – you said recently that you were most happiest when you’d pulled off an ‘intrigue’ and it all turned out exactly as planned. Can you tell us any more about what happened, and what bits of it all you relished most?
Regarding lying: I realized recently that these liars really don’t care if you know they are lying, or catch them in a lie. The best (for them), is that they got what they wanted because of the lie. But, if they didn’t get what they wanted, at least they got to confuse you and casue you ponder their motives etc (i.e., “how could he lie . . knowing I know it’s a lie?” . . . a side-effect of their lying. In either case . . . they effected you and controlled the situation. How sick is that?
I’ve been subject to so many half truths, that I became too bewildered to even try to converse. I would question everything he said in my mind, then go over it constantly looking for that loophole I knew was there. As I travel this life journey, I’m constantly amazed at the approach of so many. I can’t help but wonder what they are looking for and how they hope to achieve their agenda.
I have wanted to believe that people were people and really cared, but had no idea that so many played games and didn’t even play by their own rules. It’s like they were making up the daily ritual, to coincide with whatever mood they were in. Love, to me, is unconditional, constant and consistent. Being with these mix up minds, sure leaves one in doubt.
But the phrase, familiarity breeds contempt, sure is fitting. I’ve found the longer I knew the ones in my life, and the more I saw behind the scenes, the more I didn’t want them around. I guess as long as they kept us in the dark, and kept playing their game, they had a captive audience. For me, once the facade finally slipped, the man behind the mask, is as shaky as the wizard in Oz. He needs a brain, heart and courage. It really has to be awful going through life, turning love into contempt. But if they walk in their own darkness, they don’t much care.
I think, too, when we can finally reach that place where we feel sorry for them, not in an emotional way, we have forgiven them. I’m glad I don’t have to resort to lying to get through life, as it always comes back to haunt that person. Truth will prevail. I’d much rather have that, than a life built on lies. It will come tumbling down. But there won’t be anyone around to but the pieces together again!! Although these kind usually find another sucker to drain.
Sometimes I feel bothered by the fact that the ones in my life thought they were so manly, but through a series of events, they were put in their place and lost their standing. Had they just humbled themselves, they wouldn’t have been brought down. I don’t take pride in calling them on their lies. But I can’t take anymore. I’d rather have truth by myself than to keep living a lie with someone who’s a phony. All to make him feel like a man.