Ethopharmacology of Flight Behaviour

Abstract

Fighting, or agonistic behaviour, is composed of two predominant modes of response, namely offensive activities associated with attacks, and flight responses or escape-oriented behaviour. Both modes occur during aggressive encounters between individuals of the same species. Studies of drug-induced changes in aggression particularly in rodents are very numerous. However, few studies have investigated flight behaviour even though it occurs in all situations conducive to fighting. Non-pharmacologically induced changes in offensive behaviour inevitably alter flight, either in terms of outright escape or as changes in ambivalent behaviour. It is, therefore, to be expected that drugs which alter offensive aggression will also alter patterns of flight behaviour. Flight is also a component of human non-verbal behaviour (Grant 1968, 1969), consequently the study of flight behaviour is relevant to man and animals alike. In this paper, some ethological concepts of flight behaviour are briefly outlined (see also Dixon 1986) so as to provide a backdrop against which some chosen examples of drug-induced changes in flight behaviour in animals are analysed.KeywordsDefensive BehaviourAgonistic BehaviourStatic FlightTonic ImmobilityFlight BehaviourThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.