Bullying alters brain chemistry, leads to anxiety
Friday, March 25, 2011 - 15:10
in Psychology & Sociology
Getting kicked around is no fun for anyone, but researchers are finding that it's not just the body that's bruised, but the brain, too. New experiments from Rockefeller show that mice that are repeatedly bullied by by dominant males grow unusually anxious around new company, threatening or not. The behavioral change seems to be in part due to a change in gene expression that increases sensitivity to vasopressin, a hormone involved in a variety of social behaviors.