Researchers at Yale’s School of Medicine have recently concluded an investigation into the effects of nicotine on angry mice. If you are interested in making a mouse miffed at home then all you need to do is carry out a “resident-intruder test”. Having all of your in-laws over for Christmas is a huge moustake and can rodent an otherwise harmonious relationship.
A strange mouse was introduced into the cage of an otherwise happy mouse and the scientists timed how long it took to become irritated. They did not detail if this involved the visitor suggesting a game of Charades or announcing they were now vegetarian.
Nicotine patches were placed on the skin of some mice with the result that scientists observed they reduced aggression in three different mouse types. Researchers also looked at how nicotine effected mouse movement, how sociable they became and then sliced sections of their brain for image scans. It is highly probably that, had they known in advance, the mice would have become angry about the last part with or without nicotine.
In justifying the experiments, Gerrit van Schalkwyk nsaid: “I think it would be helpful to understand the relative risks and benefits [of such nicotine use] in a more scientific way.” The purpose of the studies was to see if nicotine could impact on human aggression – in particular that exhibited by some children with autism.
In 2008, scientists found a link between drugs designed to curb nicotine desire and the alleviation of some autistic symptoms. The Yale study was extended to look at human subjects and nicotine patches were placed on the skin of an autistic spectrum disorder patient when doctors felt an aggressive mood swing was imminent.
Doctors compared the number of restraints and holds required to contain the patient with and without the use of the patch. They concluded that it did indeed alleviate the levels of aggression commonly found in patients suffering from autism spectrum disorders.
The researchers pointed out that although there are indications nicotine could play a role in a solution to human aggression there are drawbacks to the study. Firstly, humans display different forms of aggression to mice due to the structure of the brain. This could be the main reason you never see gangs of mice fighting at football matches or telling each other how bad their driving is.
“Whether nicotine administration would impact all or only some forms of human aggression is open to debate,” Charles Nelson of Harvard said. We “have large prefrontal cortexes, giving humans the ability to moderate displays of aggression. I doubt one would want to start medicating boys who act out in preschool with nicotine.”
The authors claim that patches offer a good solution as they do not lead to addiction or smoking. It is not clear how the special nicotine on patches differs from that found in vape – maybe ecigs too could find themselves being prescribed for help in anger management classes.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.
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