title: The mouse that roared: neural mechanisms of social hierarchy.
abstract: Hierarchical social status greatly influences behavior and health. Human and animal studies have begun to identify the brain regions that are activated during the formation of social hierarchies. They point towards the prefrontal cortex (PFC) as a central regulator, with brain areas upstream of the PFC conveying information about social status, and downstream brain regions executing dominance behavior. This review summarizes our current knowledge on the neural circuits that control social status. We discuss how the neural mechanisms for various types of dominance behavior can be studied in laboratory rodents by selective manipulation of neuronal activity or synaptic plasticity. These studies may help in finding the cause of social stress-related mental and physical health problems.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience and State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, The Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam 1019 RG, The Netherlands. Electronic address: h.kessels@nin.knaw.nl.
authors.forename: Helmut W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Kessels
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience and State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China. Electronic address: hailan@ion.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Hailan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D013315:Stress, Psychological
keywords: dominance; hierarchy; mPFC; neuronal circuit; social status; synaptic plasticity; tube test