Aggression as rewarding as sex: Study

8220;We have found that the 8216;reward pathway8217; in the brain becomes engaged in response to an aggressive event and that dopamine is involved. It8217;s well known that dopamine is produced in response to rewarding stimuli such as food, sex and drugs of abuse. What we have now found is that it also serves as positive reinforcement for aggression,8221; the ScienceDaily quoted lead researcher Maria Couppis as saying.

The researchers came to the conclusion after analysing the involvement of brain in aggression on rodents.

For the experiments, a pair of mice 8212; one male, one female 8212; was kept in one cage and five 8216;intruder8217; mice were kept in a separate cage. The female mouse was temporarily removed, and an intruder mouse was introduced in its place, triggering an aggressive response by the 8216;home8217; male mouse.

Aggressive behaviour included tail rattle, an aggressive sideways stance, boxing and biting.