Social Status, Brain, and Behavior: the Effect of Social Experience on Brain and Behavior

Stressed out? Just had a hard time dealing with your boss at work who is asking you to make more and more profit? You are not the only one... Many animals compete over limited resources such as food, shelter, and mate opportunities. As a result, they form dominant-subordinate relationships in which one animal repeatedly wins the contest over the other animal. It is likely that these animals go through similar stressful experiences like we do. This study tests whether dominant-subordinate relationships influence the brain and behavior of animals. A particular focus is first set on examining the changes in the behavioral responses to unexpected touch of animals under escapable and inescapable dominant-subordinate relationships. Then this study further examines the changes in the level of neurogenesis in the brain of animals under inescapable dominant-subordinate relationships. The book is addressed to professionals in several fields of academia including psychiatry, psychology, ethology, and neurobiology. It is also directed toward general public since we are likely to experience some forms of dominant-subordinate relationships during our life.