The Effect of Thermic Stress on the Somatic Reaction of Rage and on Rapid Circling Turns, in the cat

An investigation was made of the effect of thermic stress on the somatic rage reaction and on rapid circling turns in cats awake and free to move in a behavioural cage. An increase in room temperature had a two-phase effect on the excitability of the nervous structures stimulated that is able to evoke the somatic rage reaction and rapid circling turns. The first phase, at room temperature 25 degrees-30 degrees C, was characterized by hypoexcitability; the second phase, appearing after longer periods of exposure and at temperatures above 30 degrees C, was characterized by the onset panting, hyperexcitability of the nervous structures stimulated and then by lowering of the somatic rage reacti…

Short term diet of precooked corn meal almost lacking in tryptophan and interspecific rat-mouse aggressive behaviour.

The content of tryptophan in a precooked corn meal and in 4 types of selected corn seeds: Zea mays indurata, identata, opaque/2 and Marano synth., has been determined by three different methods: ion-exchange chromatography, spectrofluorometry and spectrophotometry. This content is very low, less than 0.080% d.w. Alimentation for 4 d with a diet composed of precooked corn meal with a tryptophan content less than 0.025% induced the appearance of aggressive-cidal or aggressive non-cidal behaviour towards the mouse in more than half of Wistar rats bred in a room constantly lighted by a sodium steam light. The appearance of this behaviour is probably connected with a decrease in brain serotonin.

Les Réponses évoquées Du Noyau Caudé Par Stimulation Du Noyau Cochleaire

Environmental lighting and muricidal behaviour in the male Wistar rat.

Effects of different conditions of environmental lighting on the appearance of the muricidal behaviour in male Wistar rats have been studied. The animals were kept under different conditions of environmental lighting: 1) natural day light alternated with the dark of the night; 2) sodium, continuous light emitted by a sodium steam lamp; 3) neon, continuous light emitted by fluorescent neon tubes. The continuous sodium steam light increased the percentage of animals becoming muricide when compared to animals bred in a natural environment with a normal succession of day-night lighting. On the contrary, this percentage decreased if the rats of the same group are exposed to continuous light emit…