Topic: agonistic encounters

Social defence is an essential behaviour for social animals. It allows the existence of winners and losers in agonistic encounters, without deaths, promoting the group's stability. As for other aversive contexts, the environmental cues (e.g. the distance to the aggressor) are essential for a proper expression of defence. Understanding how the brain processes these cues, associating them with other stimuli and defining the defensive response, is a fundamental step towards a better comprehension of the neural bases of social defence. Previous work suggests that, in C57Bl/6 mice, a septo-hippocam