Summary: Researchers report bullying behavior activates primary reward circuits in the brain, making it a pleasurable behavior to a certain subset of individuals.
Maladaptive aggressive behavior is associated with a number of psychiatric disorders and is thought to partly result from inappropriate activation of brain reward systems in response to aggressive or violent social stimuli. NeuroscienceNews.com image is for illustrative purposes only.
Funding: This research was supported by US National Institute of Health grants R01 MH090264, P50 MH096890 and P50 AT008661-01 (SJR), R01 MH092306 (MHH), T32 MH087004 (MLP, MH and MF), T32 MH096678 (MLP), F30 MH100835 (MH), F31 MH105217 (MLP), NIGMS 1FI2GM117583-01 (SAG) and NSFC 81200862 (HZ).
Original Research: The study will appear in Nature.
Mount Sinai Hospital. “Motivation to Bully is Regulated by Brain’s Reward Circuits.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 29 June 2016.
Mount Sinai Hospital. “Motivation to Bully is Regulated by Brain’s Reward Circuits.” http://neurosciencenews.com/bully-reward-aggression-4601/ (accessed June 29, 2016).