Aggression Collaboratory

Contact:  Kim Huhman, PhD, khuhman@gsu.edu, Ph. 404-651-1636

At A Glance

The Aggression Collaboratory focuses on the neural and behavioral mechanisms governing social hierarchies. Discoveries include:

• Oxytocin (OT) regulates behaviors involved in the formation of social hierarchies in animals; social experience and social context affect OT’s release in the brain.
  
• Social subordinance results in the release of neurochemicals associated with chronic stress and adversely affects digestive function in some animals.
  
• Termites, one of the few non-human species that engage in organized warfare, fight more intensely when deprived of and competing for food

• The defensive secretion of the Aplysia sea slug contains an antimicrobial protein with potential industrial applications;
  
• The brain regulates the initial stages of sex change in the bluebanded goby.
  
• Food competition between male rats alters vasopressin V1a receptor binding density in the lateral septum.