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Neural systems that facilitate the representation of social rank
Open accessAbstract
Across species, animals organize into social dominance hierarchies that serve to decrease aggression and facilitate survival of the group. Neuroscientists have adopted several model organisms to study dominance hierarchies in the laboratory setting, including fish, reptiles, rodents and primates. We review recent literature across species that sheds light onto how the brain represents social rank to guide socially appropriate behaviour within a dominance hierarchy. First, we discuss how the brain responds to social status signals. Then, we discuss social approach and avoidance learning mechanisms that we propose could drive rank-appropriate behaviour. Lastly, we discuss how the brain represents memories of individuals (social memory) and how this may support the maintenance of unique individual relationships within a social group. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies’.
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“Such transitions in social rank are associated with significant modifications to individual behavior and physiology [4–8].”
From Rapid changes in plasma corticosterone and medial amygdala transcriptome profiles during social status change reveal molecular pathways associated with a major life history transition in mouse dominance hierarchies (2025) · cites this paper as [4]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Dwortz, M. F., Curley, J. P., Tye, K. M., & Padilla-Coreano, N.
- Affiliations
- Institute for Neuroscience (CH)
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Salk Institute for Biological Studies (US)
- Corresponding author
- Padilla-Coreano, Nancy
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2022-01-10
- Volume
- 377
- Issue
- 1845
- Pages
- 20200444-20200444
- ISSN
- 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2970
- PMC
- PMC8743891
- OpenAlex
- W4206698489
- Cited by
- 64
- References
- 216
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 10
- FWCI
- 2.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (DP1-502 AT009925)
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund
- National Institute of Mental Health (K99 MH124435, R01-MH115920)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- social dominance hierarchy, social rank, social memory, individual recognition, pecking order, aggression, comparative neurobiology
- MeSH terms
- Aggression, Animals, Hierarchy, Social, Social Dominance
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