Endotoxin and Psychiatric Disease
Oxytocin (OXT) and serotonin (5-HT) are essential neurotransmitters associated with the behavior of animals. Recently, we found that the plasma concentration of OXT is positively correlated with horse docility and friendliness toward humans. However, the relationships between the neurotransmitters and other temperaments such as fearfulness, dominance, and trainability are unknown. This study aimed to identify whether the plasma concentration of OXT or 5-HT is correlated with fearfulness, dominance, and trainability of horses. Blood samples of 34 horseswere collected at the Horse Industry Complex Center of Jeonju Kijeon College.The concentration of OXT and 5-HT was measured in the plasma samples using enzyme-linkedimmunosorbent assays. The fearfulness, dominance, and trainability of horseswere scored by three professors who were very familiar with the horses. One-wayanalysis of variance with the least significant difference post-hoc analysiswas used to compare the scores for fearfulness and dominance among groups. Thetrainability of horses was compared using the student t-test. The5-HT was negatively correlated with dominance, but it had no relation withfearfulness. The OXT appeared to be negatively correlated with fearfulness anddominance in horses. Furthermore, OXT was positively correlated with thetrainability of horses. Additionally, 5-HT appeared to enhance trainability.In conclusion, the concentration of OXT or 5-HT in horse blood plasma can be usedas a biomarker to monitor the fearfulness, dominance, or trainability ofhorses.
Kim, Junyoung, Youngjae Park, Eun Joong Kim, Heejun Jung,and Minjung Yoon. "Relationship between Oxytocin and Serotonin and theFearfulness, Dominance, and Trainability of Horses." Journal of Animal Science and Technology 63, no. 2 (2021): 453–60. https://doi.org/10.5187/jast.2021.e29.
- Comment: According to the study, the horses with the lowest serotonin levels showed the highest dominance while the ones with the highest ones were the most "trainable", which is euphemism in animal science for obedience, servility, and (social) defeat. This is by far not the only study onthe topic and it is well-known in animal research circles that the so-called "socialdefeat" paradigm, which leads to the drop of an animal’s social rank andsubsequent development of depression and chronic disease, is driven by a risein serotonin as a result of the stressful experience of "training" (usuallyoutright torture). In fact, animal studies show that changes in serotoninlevels are the primary driver of appearances of hierarchies in societies, andmaintaining high serotonin levels (and thus servility/defeat) in thenon-dominant social members is perhaps the primary mechanism through which the"elites" maintain their dominance over the "plebs". Now, think what thatimplies about SSRI drugs and their massive usage in most "developed" countries…Link: http://haidut.me/?p=1487