Hoppenreijs, MMM (2020) Intersexual dominance and its relation to stress and sexual coercion. Master's Research Project 1, Biomedical Sciences.
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Abstract
Stress is an important factor in the etiology of depression and anxiety disorders. It is hypothesized that lasting subordination in low-ranked rats causes stress, which we try to validate. We also try to find evidence if sexual coercion is a potential stressor for female rats similar to what is known for women in human society. In rats this might be different because they are considered as animals with a much lower cognition than primates including humans. A semi-natural environment like the visible burrow system will be used to study the agonistic and sexual interactions in these animals. Consequences of living in the visible burrow system on stress and wellbeing will be studied in body and organ weight changes, in hormones like corticosterone and in structural and functional brain properties. For males, the thymus was positively correlated with rank, and for females, the adrenal glands were negatively correlated with rank. No significant correlation was found between hierarchy and frequency of sexual coercion for either males or females, neither a correlation for hierarchy and frequency of successful defenses, nor between the frequency of sexual coercion and physiology of the females. Due to corona, the study ended abruptly and not all analyses have been performed, this makes it difficult to provide significant results and give a reliable display of consequences of dominance hierachies and sexual coercion in rats.
Item Type: | Thesis (Master's Research Project 1) |
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Supervisor name: | Buwalda, B. and Puentes-Escamilla, M.A. |
Degree programme: | Biomedical Sciences |
Thesis type: | Master's Research Project 1 |
Language: | English |
Date Deposited: | 11 Feb 2021 12:02 |
Last Modified: | 11 Feb 2021 12:02 |
URI: | https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/23953 |
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