title: Social correlates of the dominance rank and long-term cortisol levels in adolescent and adult male rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta).
abstract: A common pattern in dominance hierarchies is that some ranks result in higher levels of psychosocial stress than others. Such stress can lead to negative health outcomes, possibly through altered levels of stress hormones. The dominance rank-stress physiology relationship is known to vary between species; sometimes dominants show higher levels of glucocorticoid stress hormones, whereas in other cases subordinates show higher levels. It is less clear how this relationship varies between groups of different ages or cultures. In this study, we used long-term cortisol measurement methods to compare the effect of rank on cortisol levels in adult and adolescent male rhesus macaques. In the adult groups, subordinates had significantly higher cortisol levels. In the adolescents, no significant correlation between cortisol and status was found. Further analysis demonstrated that the adult hierarchy was stricter than that of the adolescents. Adult subordinates received extreme aggression more frequently than dominants, and this class of behavior was positively correlated with cortisol; by contrast, adolescents showed neither trend. Together, these findings provide evidence for a cortisol-rank relationship determined by social factors, namely, despotism of the group, and highlight the importance of group-specific social analysis when comparing or combining results obtained from different groups of animals.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences &Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences &Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, China.|Kunming College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650204, China.
authors.forename: Xujun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences &Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, China.
authors.forename: Ryan J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Morrill
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences &Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, China.|Kunming College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650204, China.
authors.forename: Zhifei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences &Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, China.
authors.forename: Chunlu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences &Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, China.
authors.forename: Shangchuan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences &Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, China.
authors.forename: Zhaoxia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Beijing, 100101, People's Republic of China.|Institute of Biophysics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ding
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Kunming Primate Research Center, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, China.
authors.forename: Longbao
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: Kunming Primate Research Center, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, China.
authors.forename: Zhengfei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences &Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650021, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: The Ophthalmology Department, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650021, China.
authors.forename: Liyun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences &Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, China.|State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Beijing, 100101, People's Republic of China.|Institute of Biophysics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Dongdong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences &Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, China.|CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yue Yang Road, Shanghai, 200031, China.
authors.forename: Xintian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000374:Aggression; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000032:analysis*; D008253:Macaca mulatta / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D012930:Social Dominance; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone