REALIZATION OF ANXIETY AND AGGRESSION IN RATS WITH ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE IN THE CONDITIONS OF ZOOSOCIAL CONFLICT

Abstract

The aim of the work was to study the features of the relationship between anxiety and aggressiveness in rats with alcohol dependence when modeling a long-term zoo conflict situation. Neuroethological studies were carried out using a multi-parameter method for assessing anxiety. Aggressiveness and submissiveness were studied when creating agonistic collisions as a result of conflict social interactions and psychoemotional stress in a confined space using the sensory contact technique and the “partition” test. Alcohol dependence in rats was caused by voluntary intake of alcoholized food. The experimental group consisted of rats subjected to alcoholization and agonistic collisions. The comparison group included rats with agonistic collisions. Alcoholization of rats increased the baseline low level of anxiety. Confrontational relationships caused in 54% of alcoholized rats a consistently high level of impulsive aggression together with the desired aggression and a decrease in anxiety. At the same time, 46% of rats exhibited submissive behavior. In animals that had a baseline low level of anxiety and were not subjected to alcoholization, manifestations of aggression were noted only in 30% of rats and they had a fading character in the dynamics of zoo conflict relations. Animals with a baseline high level of anxiety exhibited submissive behavior under these conditions. Thus, the role of a basic low level of anxiety in the formation of emotional disorders was shown: an increase in the level of anxiety in alcoholism and the dominance of impulsive and desired aggression in conditions of zoosocial conflict.