Influence of isolation stress on monoamine levels in discrete regions of the rat brain correlated with behaviour.

Various forms of stressful stimuli have been shown to affect brain catecholamine (CA) and indoleamine (IA) levels, although the literature contains some conflicting views. Changes in monoamine levels were also found to accompany the behavioural changes in animals. In the present study an attempt was made to correlate the behavioural changes with the monoamine level in discrete regions of rat brain after different periods of isolation stress. The results clearly indicate that not only the central norepinephrine and dopamine neurons involved in the expression of aggressive behaviour after isolation stress but also the serotoninergic neurons might take part.