Abstract
Summary
Aggressive reactions were evoked by thirst and pain in rats belonging to two strains with opposite genetic susceptibility to experimental hypertension. Members of the sensitive strain were consistently less aggressive than those of the resistant strain. This pattern of behavior was found both in young normotensive and adult hypertensive rats of the sensitive strain. It appears that selective inbreeding has resulted in certain behavior patterns being genetically “clustered” with the predilection for or against development of experimental hypertension. It is not known whether this is due to chance or whether it is related to a genetic complex of more fundamental importance.
The authors are indebted to Dr. L. K. Dahl for his generous supply of animals, and for his reviewing of the manuscript of this paper.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.