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functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) uses radio waves and a strong magnetic field rather than X-rays to take clear and detailed pictures of internal organs and tissues.
fMRI uses this technology to identify regions of the brain where blood vessels are expanding, chemical changes are taking place, or extra oxygen is being delivered. These are indications that a particular part of the brain is processing information and giving commands to the body.
As a patient performs a particular task, the metabolism will increase in the brain area responsible for that task, changing the signal in the MRI image. So by performing specific tasks that correspond to different functions, scientists can locate the part of the brain that governs that function.
Bethesda, MD, USA. Does your position in a social hierarchy strongly influence your motivation and impact on your physical and mental health? Yes, M'am. Studies have shown that social status strongly predicts health. Animals chronically stressed by their hierarchical position have high rates of cardiovascular and depression/anxiety-like syndromes. A classic study of British civil servants found that the lower one ranked, the higher the odds for developing cardiovascular disease and dying early.
Lower social rank likely compromises health through psychological effects, such as by limiting control over one's life and interactions with others. However, in hierarchies that allow for more upward mobility, those at the top who stand to lose their positions can have higher risk for stress-related illness.
Know Your Place: Neural Processing of Social Hierarchy in Humans. Caroline F. Zink, Yunxia Tong, Qiang Chen, Danielle S. Bassett, Jason L. Stein, and Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg. Neuron 2008 58: 273-283.
Little has been known about how the human brain translates such factors into health risk. However, neuroscientists have instensified their investigations into how different parts of the brain are structured and which functions influence human behavior. New imaging studies have identified human brain circuitry associated with social status.
In this study, circuitry activated by important events responded to a potential change in hierarchical status as much as it did to winning money. They found direct evidence that different brain areas are activated when a person moves up or down in a pecking order — or simply views perceived social superiors or inferiors.
The NIMH researchers created an artificial social hierarchy in which 72 participants played an interactive computer game for money. They were assigned a status that they were told was based on their playing skill. In fact, the game outcomes were predetermined and the other "players" simulated by computer. While their brain activity was monitored by fMRI, participants intermittently saw pictures and scores of an inferior and a superior "player" they thought were simultaneously playing in other rooms.
Although they knew the perceived players' scores would not affect their own outcomes or reward — and were instructed to ignore them — participants' brain activity and behavior were highly influenced by their position in the implied hierarchy.
"The processing of hierarchical information seems to be hard-wired, occurring even outside of an explicitly competitive environment, underscoring how important it is for us," said Zink.
Key study findings.The area that signals an event's importance, called the ventral striatum, responded to the prospect of a rise or fall in rank as much as it did to the monetary reward, confirming the high value accorded social status.
[1] Brain activity was much higher in key brain centers when participants viewed a superior player in an unstable social hierarchy — when participants had the possibility of upward mobility.
Just viewing a superior human "player," as opposed to a perceived inferior one or a computer, activated an area near the front of the brain that appears to size up people — making interpersonal judgments and assessing social status.
A circuit involving the mid-front part of the brain that processes the intentions and motives of others and emotion processing areas deep in the brain activated when the hierarchy became unstable, allowing for upward and downward mobility.
[2] When participants experienced an outcome that could increase their status and have them become superior players, activity increased in circuitry at the top front of the brain that controls the intention to do something, suggesting that rising in a hierarchy makes one more action-oriented.
Performing better than the superior "player" activated areas higher and toward the front of the brain controlling action planning, while performing worse than an inferior "player" activated areas lower in the brain associated with emotional pain and frustration.
[3] As they played games in the MRI scanner, pictures with rankings of other players and updated outcomes periodically flashed on the screen. Situations that could signal a fall in status activated circuitry known to process emotional pain and frustration.
The researchers tracked mood changes in the participants. The more positive the mood they experienced while at the top of an unstable hierarchy, the stronger was activity in this emotional pain circuitry when they viewed an outcome that threatened to move them down in status.
In other words, people who felt more joy when they won also felt more pain when they lost.
"Such activation of emotional pain circuitry may underlie a heightened risk for stress-related health problems among competitive individuals," suggested Meyer-Lindenberg.
All images courtesy of Caroline Zink, Ph.D., NIMH Genes Cognition and Psychosis Program.
"Our position in social hierarchies strongly influences motivation as well as physical and mental health," said NIMH Director Thomas R Insel, M.D. "This first glimpse into how the brain processes that information advances our understanding of an important factor that can impact public health."
In collaboration with other NIMH researchers, Zink and colleagues are planning follow-up studies to explore brain activity in response to the experimental social hierarchy in patients with mental illnesses like schizophrenia or autism, which are marked by social and thinking deficits.
The researchers will also be exploring whether particular gene variants might differentially affect brain responses in similar experiments.
Also participating in the study were Yunxia Tong, Qiang Chen, Danielle Bassett, and Jason Stein, NIMH.
Know Your Place: Neural Processing of Social Hierarchy in Humans. Caroline F. Zink, Yunxia Tong, Qiang Chen, Danielle S. Bassett, Jason L. Stein, and Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg. Neuron 2008 58: 273-283.
Summary. Social hierarchies guide behavior in many species, including humans, where status also has an enormous impact on motivation and health. However, little is known about the underlying neural representation of social hierarchies in humans. In the present study, we identify dissociable neural responses to perceived social rank using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in an interactive, simulated social context. In both stable and unstable social hierarchies, viewing a superior individual differentially engaged perceptual-attentional, saliency, and cognitive systems, notably dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In the unstable hierarchy setting, additional regions related to emotional processing (amygdala), social cognition (medial prefrontal cortex), and behavioral readiness were recruited. Furthermore, social hierarchical consequences of performance were neurally dissociable and of comparable salience to monetary reward, providing a neural basis for the high motivational value of status. Our results identify neural mechanisms that may mediate the enormous influence of social status on human behavior and health.
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In this study, circuitry activated by important events responded to a potential change in hierarchical status as much as it did to winning money. They found direct evidence that different brain areas are activated when a person moves up or down in a pecking order — or simply views perceived social superiors or inferiors. 
Key study findings.The area that signals an event's importance, called the ventral striatum, responded to the prospect of a rise or fall in rank as much as it did to the monetary reward, confirming the high value accorded social status. 
The TS-Si News Service is a collaborative effort by TS-Si.org editors, contributors, and corresponding institutions. The sources can include the cited individuals and organizations, as well as TS-Si.org staff contributions. Articles and news reports do not necessarily convey official positions of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. 
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