Subsequent Fighting Research Articles

The Psychological Impact of War and the Refugee Situation on South Sudanese Children in Refugee Camps in Northern Uganda: An Exploratory Study

This paper presents the results of an exploratory study on the psychosocial effects of the war situation and subsequent flight on South Sudanese children who were compared to a group of Ugandan children who did not have these experiences of war and flight. In addition to the independent variables such as sociodemographic variables and traumatic events and daily life stress, the dependent variable psychological consequences--according to parents and children themselves--as well as the influence of the mediating factors of social support and coping behaviour are presented. Results showed that Sudanese refugee children had experienced significantly more traumatic events and suffered more daily hassles than the Ugandese comparison group. They were less satisfied with the social support they received. At the same time, they used more coping modes. Compared to Ugandan children, the Sudanese reported significantly more PTSD-like complaints, behavioural problems, and depressive symptoms.

Body size and agonistic experience affect dominance and mating success in male copperheads

Fighting behaviour in adult male copperheads,Agkistrodon contortrix(Serpentes, Viperidae), was investigated in the laboratory to assess the relative importance of body size and type of agonistic experience as determinants of dominance and mating success. Seven experiments were conducted. In each experiment, trials were run using two adult males and one female in a large arena. The first experiment tested the influence of body size. All males tested had no recent fighting experience for 6–12 months, and one male of each pair was 8–10% longer in snout–vent length and had greater mass. In all cases, larger males won fights and were first to locate, court and guard females; thus, larger snout–vent length was an important determinant of fighting success and priority of access to potential mates. Males with either winning or losing experience from the first experiment were used in six subsequent experiments on the relative importance of snout–vent length and agonistic experience in attaining dominance and mating success. Losing experience had a greater effect than snout–vent length on subsequent fighting success and gaining priority of access to females. Winning experience, in contrast, did not increase the probability of winning subsequent fights; however, winners appeared more excitable and none deferred from challenges of other males. The asymmetry in effects of single experiences of victory and defeat is consistent with studies on other vertebrates and supports the hypothesis that losing fights in males negatively affects behaviour directly related to their fitness.

Learning about the opponent during aggressive encounters in paradise fish ( Macropodus opercularis L.): when it takes place?

Dyadic encounters between paradise fish ( Macropodus opercularis L.) males were staged. In a first experiment, the duration of the dominance–submissive phase (cohabitation following the end of fighting) and the inter-encounter interval were manipulated. Measuring the duration both of threatening, fighting, mouthlock and head-tail display it was found that the memory of an aggressive encounter largely disappeared after 6 days and the duration of the dominance–submissive experience had no effect on the stability of memory formation in this species. In a second experiment, one group of fighting fish were separated just after the end of the fight, while concomitantly fish still fighting were also separated. On the next day, the aggressive behaviour of these two groups was compared and found that fighting decreased only in the group, of which the members had been able to finish the encounter. Our results show that: (1) post-contest harassment of the submissive has little if any impact on the behaviour changes that result; (2) an aggressive encounter affects the duration and patterns of a subsequent fight only if the fight is completed (i.e. dominance relationship develop); and (3) regardless, of the previous experience memory will fade after 6 days. In conclusion, the experience of winning or losing is the promoter of behavioural changes that result from aggressive experience. It is suggested that the social behaviour of the paradise fish determines the constraints of memory and learning in aggressive situations.

Medical Team Seeks to Identify Human Remains From Mass Graves of War in Former Yugoslavia

DESPITE DISCOURAGING developments in the former Yugoslavia, physicians with ties to that troubled land continue to do what they can. One of those is Dragan Primorac, MD, a native of Split on the Adriatic Sea coast of Croatia, which declared its independence from the former Yugoslavian federal union 41 months ago and has suffered numerous casualties in subsequent fighting (<i>JAMA</i>. 1993;270:626-628). Primorac currently is part of the faculty of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, studying DNA, RNA, and proteins as part of a study of osteogenesis imperfecta. During the coming year, Primorac and his colleagues will be resuming their efforts to identify the remains of 26 of 61 persons found in six mass graves in a neighboring republic. The site is Kupres in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which— nearly 8 months after Croatia's July 25, 1991, declaration—in turn declared its independence March 6, 1992, and since

Social overstimulation reduces subsequent aggression inBetta splendens

This paper examines the waning of intense aggressive behaviors in Siamese fighting fish subjected to continuous visual social stimulation. Damaging biting during subsequent fighting was dramatically reduced in fish which had been surrounded for several weeks by conspecifics, even though the overstimulated fish performed only opercular and fin displays to the fish surrounding them, not biting. The latency to opercular display was diminished, but the rate once opercular display began was not significantly different. In the 18 encounters observed, a socially overstimulated fish never dominated a control fish. This result suggests a visually mediated mechanism, which reduces biting tendency when there is prolonged, inescapable visual exposure to mildly aggression-releasing stimuli similar to those which trigger biting in live encounters. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Pre-copulatory guarding of penultimate females by male crab spiders, Misumenoides formosipes

Abstract. Previous studies have identified a first mate sperm priority pattern for spider species belonging to the Entelegynae, which are characterized in part by complex female genitalia. First mate sperm priority leads to the hypothesis that unmated females should be a particularly valuable resource from a male perspective and therefore pre-copulatory guarding of immature females is expected. Laboratory experiments with an entelegyne species, Misumenoides formosipes, supported the prediction that males would cohabit with penultimate females longer than with either adult-virgin or once-mated females, and field distributions of males corroborated these results. Males took up residence under inflorescences occupied by penultimate females and fought with introduced intruder males. In staged fights differences of 10% or greater in cephalothorax width of opponents influenced fight outcome, whereas body length and weight had no effect. Fights often resulted in leg autotomization and were sometimes lethal. The loss of a raptorial foreleg significantly reduced subsequent fighting success.

A guide to the literature on aggressive behavior

A guide to the literature on aggressive behavior

Display vigour and subsequent fight performance in the siamese fighting fish, betta splendens

The display of 24 individual male Siamese fighting fish to an unresponsive stimulus conspecific was measured, and the fish were then placed together in pairs. For 11 of the 12 pairs, the outcome of the aggressive interaction which ensued was predicted by the gill cover erection durations obtained in the pre-fight isolate tests. The implications of this result for theories of display function are discussed.

Commitments to aggression and nest sites in male Betta splendens.

Male Siamese fighting fish construct nests that are relatively isolated from conspecific males. Following nest construction, the presence of a male opponent elicits (a) nest fixation, (b) further nest building, and (c) Betta's agonistic sequence, i.e., attacks alternating with flight movements, along with gill displays occurring near the opponent. The form of a male-male encounter depends upon the distance between a resident's nest and the opponent as well as upon the individual differences in combatants' tolerance for the presence of a conspecific nearby. Also, the intensity of aggression early in an encounter is positively correlated with the intensity of subsequent fighting. Male Bettas appear to compete for space through the use of aggressive behavior and to coordinate their fighting activities by means of visual signals. An incentive model of visual communication is proposed in which visual cues emanating from a displaying male opponent elicit attack with an intensity that is directly proportional to the persistence of the opponent and inversely proportional to the distance between fish.

An attempt to separate the roles of corticosterone and ACTH in the control of post-shock fighting behaviour in male laboratory mice

One experiment was conducted to separate the roles of corticosterone and ACTH in the mediation of the facilitatory effects of experiencing shock on subsequent fighting behaviour in male mice. It was found that (1) treatment with electric foot-shock and single injections of ACTH (one dose level) lead to comparable increases in subsequent fighting in intact males; (2) preventing changes in testosterone secretion by combined castration and testosterone replacement does not occlude or modify the facilitatory effects of shock or ACTH on subsequent fighting; and (3) preventing changes in both testosterone and corticosterone secretion by combined castration—adrenalectomy and testosterone—corticosterone replacement prevents shock and ACTH induced increases in fighting. These findings suggest that corticosterone plays a more important role than ACTH in the mediation of the facilitatory effects of shock on subsequent fighting behaviour in male mice.

Role of corticosterone in the control of post-shock fighting behaviour in male laboratory mice

Two experiments were conducted to examine the role of corticosterone in controlling fighting subsequent to electric foot-shock in male mice. It was found that (1) treatment with corticosterone restores post-shock fighting in adrenalectomized males but not in castrated-adrenalectomized males; (2) raising cortieosterone levels induces post-shock fighting in castrated-adrenalectomized males treated with testosterone but not in castrated-adrenalectomized controls treated with a placebo; and (3) preventing corticosterone responses to shock occludes the increasing in fighting which normally follow shock in intact males. These findings suggest that (1) corticosterone plays an important role in the control of post-shock fighting in mice; (2) this importance of corticosterone is dependent on the presence of circulating testosterone, or other androgens; and (3) corticosterone responses to the experience of shock may be involved in the mediation of the facilitatory effects of this experience on subsequent fighting behaviour.

Prolonged suppression of irritable aggression in rats by facial anesthesia.

Local anesthesia of the mystacial epidermis with Lidocaine HCl reliably decreased shock-elicited fighting in 8 pairs of mature male Long-Evans rats. The decrease in aggressive responding was approximately twice as great as that reported for devibrissaed rats. Subsequent fighting, 3-hr. post-injection, did not differ from control or pre-injection baselines. Recording of intense vocalization accompanying fighting yielded objective data comparable to attack scores visually observed and allowed an independent measure of depressed fighting behavior. The results are discussed in reference to the import of tactual orientation for guiding directed attack and the relative merits of the technique as a vehicle for further investigation.