Aggressive experience affects the sensitivity of neurons towards pharmacological treatment in the hypothalamic attack area

Early investigators of brain stimulation-evoked complex behaviours (attack, escape, feeding, self-grooming, sexual behaviour) reported that experience may affect the behavioural outcome of brain stimulation. This intriguing example of functional neuronal plasticity was later totally neglected. The present experiment investigated the behavioural outcome of in vivo microdialysis perfusion of the glutamate agonist kainate and/or the GABAA antagonist bicuculline into the hypothalamic attack area (HAA) of (1) animals naive to dyadic encounters; (2) animals with a recent aggressive experience (the probe being implanted 6-24 h after the last of a series of dyadic encounters); and (3) animals with an earlier aggressive experience (probe being implanted 2 weeks after the last aggressive experience). On the experimental day, rats received two 5-min infusions during a dyadic encounter lasting 35 min with an unknown opponent. Flow rate was 1.5-2 microliters/min, drug concentrations were 1.8 x 10(-5) and 1.5 x 10(-5) M for kainate and bicuculline, respectively. Behaviour was analysed before, during and after perfusions. Only the combined kainate + bicuculline treatment had significant effects on behaviour at the doses studied. A significant increase in aggressive behaviour was elicited only in animals with a recent aggressive experience, while naive animals and with an earlier experience responded to the treatments by grooming. These results appear to support early observations indicating that one important aspect of brain stimulation effects is previous experience.