Scientists studying the neurology of tame foxes identified changes in a part of the brain that has previously been associated with aggression, according to a new paper that compared the brains of domesticated, aggressive and wild foxes.
The changes occurred in an area at the base of the brain called ventromedial hypothalamus, which is known to drive aggression, control decisions related to energy use and is important for maternal instincts and social behaviors in mice.
The study, published Nov. 2 in the journal Current Biology, takes advantage of a classic experiment that started in Siberia in the late 1950s where Russian geneticists noticed some foxes on silver fox farms were friendlier toward human caretakers while others were more aggressive.
