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.

Social hierarchies are a common form of social organization across species. Although hierarchies are largely stable across time, animals may socially ascend or descend within hierarchies depending on environmental and social challenges. Here, we develop a novel paradigm to study social ascent and descent within male CD-1 mouse social hierarchies.

Capturing Dynamic Neuronal Responses to Dominant and Subordinate Social Hierarchy Members with catFISH.

Dominance hierarchies are key to social organization in group-living species, requiring individuals to recognize their own and others' ranks. This is particularly complex for intermediate-ranking animals, who navigate interactions with higher- and lower-ranking individuals. Using in situ hybridization, we examined how the brains of intermediate-ranked mice in hierarchies respond to dominant and subordinate stimuli by labeling activity-induced immediate early genes and neuronal markers.

The primate gut microbiota contributes to interspecific differences in host metabolism.

Because large brains are energetically expensive, they are associated with metabolic traits that facilitate energy availability across vertebrates. However, the biological underpinnings driving these traits are not known. Given its role in regulating host metabolism in disease studies, we hypothesized that the gut microbiome contributes to variation in normal cross-vertebrate species differences in metabolism, including those associated with the brain's energetic requirements.

Distinct immune and transcriptomic profiles in dominant versus subordinate males in mouse social hierarchies.

Social status is a critical factor determining health outcomes in human and nonhuman social species. In social hierarchies with reproductive skew, individuals compete to monopolize resources and increase mating opportunities. This can come at a significant energetic cost leading to trade-offs between different physiological systems.

Cortical ensembles orchestrate social competition through hypothalamic outputs.

Most social species self-organize into dominance hierarchies, which decreases aggression and conserves energy, but it is not clear how individuals know their social rank. We have only begun to learn how the brain represents social rank and guides behaviour on the basis of this representation. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in social dominance in rodents and humans.

DomArchive: a century of published dominance data.

Dominance behaviours have been collected for many groups of animals since 1922 and serve as a foundation for research on social behaviour and social structure. Despite a wealth of data from the last century of research on dominance hierarchies, these data are only rarely used for comparative insight. Here, we aim to facilitate comparative studies of the structure and function of dominance hierarchies by compiling published dominance interaction datasets from the last 100 years of work.

Neural systems that facilitate the representation of social rank.

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.

The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies.

A century ago, foundational work by Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe described a 'pecking order' in chicken societies, where individuals could be ordered according to their ability to exert their influence over their group-mates. Now known as dominance hierarchies, these structures have been shown to influence a plethora of individual characteristics and outcomes, situating dominance research as a pillar of the study of modern social ecology and evolution. Here, we first review some of the major questions that have been answered about dominance hierarchies in the last 100 years.

Effect of relative social rank within a social hierarchy on neural activation in response to familiar or unfamiliar social signals.

Competent social functioning of group-living species relies on the ability of individuals to detect and utilize conspecific social cues to guide behavior. Previous studies have identified numerous brain regions involved in processing these external cues, collectively referred to as the Social Decision-Making Network. However, how the brain encodes social information with respect to an individual's social status has not been thoroughly examined.

A psychological intervention strengthens students' peer social networks and promotes persistence in STEM.

Retaining students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is critical as demand for STEM graduates increases. Whereas many approaches to improve persistence target individuals' internal beliefs, skills, and traits, the intervention in this experiment strengthened students' peer social networks to help them persevere. Students in a gateway biology course were randomly assigned to complete a control or values affirmation exercise, a psychological intervention hypothesized to have positive social effects.

Stress in groups: Lessons from non-traditional rodent species and housing models.

A major feature of life in groups is that individuals experience social stressors of varying intensity and type. Social stress can have profound effects on health, social behavior, and ongoing relationships. Relationships can also buffer the experience of exogenous stressors.

Temporal microstructure of dyadic social behavior during relationship formation in mice.

Socially competent animals must learn to modify their behavior in response to their social partner in a contextually appropriate manner. Dominant-subordinate relationships are a particularly salient social context for mice. Here we observe and analyze the microstructure of social and non-social behaviors as 21 pairs of outbred CD-1 male mice (Mus Musculus) establish dominant-subordinate relationships during daily 20-minute interactions for five consecutive days in a neutral environment.

Foraging dynamics are associated with social status and context in mouse social hierarchies.

Living in social hierarchies requires individuals to adapt their behavior and physiology. We have previously shown that male mice living in groups of 12 form linear and stable hierarchies with alpha males producing the highest daily level of major urinary proteins and urine. These findings suggest that maintaining alpha status in a social group requires higher food and water intake to generate energetic resources and produce more urine.

Immediate early gene activation throughout the brain is associated with dynamic changes in social context.

Social competence is dependent on successful processing of social context information. The social opportunity paradigm is a methodology in which dynamic shifts in social context are induced through removal of the alpha male in a dominance hierarchy, leading to rapid ascent in the hierarchy of the beta male and of other subordinate males in the social group. In the current study, we use the social opportunity paradigm to determine what brain regions respond to this dynamic change in social context, allowing an individual to recognize the absence of the alpha male and subsequently perform status-appropriate social behaviors.

Major urinary protein levels are associated with social status and context in mouse social hierarchies.

We have previously shown that male mice living in groups of 12 males establish and maintain stable linear social hierarchies with each individual having a defined social rank. However, it is not clear which social cues mice use to signal and recognize their relative social status within their hierarchy. In this study, we investigate how individual social status both in pairs and in groups affects the levels of major urinary proteins (MUPs) and specifically MUP20 in urine.

Evidence for mast cell-mediated zinc homeostasis: Increased labile zinc in the hippocampus of mast-cell deficient mice.

The dentate gyrus of the hippocampus is a site of adult neurogenesis, and is also known to contain one of the highest concentrations of labile brain zinc (Zn), thought to aid in learning and memory by supporting neurogenesis. At the same time, it is known that unbound Zn, when present at excessive levels, decreases the formation of new neurons. Since mast cells contain Zn transporters capable of moving this essential element across their plasma membrane, as well as Zn-rich granules that are dispelled upon secretion, we reasoned that mast cells contribute to Zn homeostasis in this area of the brain, as they are found in greatest numbers in and around the dentate gyrus.

Dynamic changes in social dominance and mPOA GnRH expression in male mice following social opportunity.

Social competence - the ability of animals to dynamically adjust their social behavior dependent on the current social context - is fundamental to the successful establishment and maintenance of social relationships in group-living species. The social opportunity paradigm, where animals rapidly ascend a social hierarchy following the removal of more dominant individuals, is a well-established approach for studying the neural and neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying socially competent behavior. In the current study, we demonstrate that this paradigm can be successfully adapted for studying socially competent behavior in laboratory mice.

Plasticity of the Maternal Brain Across the Lifespan.

Maternal behavior is dynamic and highly sensitive to experiential and contextual factors. In this review, this plasticity will be explored, with a focus on how experiences of females occurring from the time of fetal development through to adulthood impact maternal behavior and the maternal brain. Variation in postpartum maternal behavior is dependent on estrogen sensitivity within the medial preoptic area of the hypothalamus and activation within mesolimbic dopamine neurons.

Mouse Social Network Dynamics and Community Structure are Associated with Plasticity-Related Brain Gene Expression.

Laboratory studies of social behavior have typically focused on dyadic interactions occurring within a limited spatiotemporal context. However, this strategy prevents analyses of the dynamics of group social behavior and constrains identification of the biological pathways mediating individual differences in behavior. In the current study, we aimed to identify the spatiotemporal dynamics and hierarchical organization of a large social network of male mice.

Temporal pairwise-correlation analysis provides empirical support for attention hierarchies in mice.

In many social hierarchies, more subordinate individuals adjust their behaviour according to the presence or behaviour of more dominant individuals. In this study, it is shown that male mice form linear dominance hierarchies characterized by individuals attacking in bursts. Temporal pairwise-correlation analysis reveals that non-dominant individuals avoid behaving aggressively concurrently with an aggressively behaving alpha male.

Influence of maternal care on the developing brain: Mechanisms, temporal dynamics and sensitive periods.

Variation in maternal care can lead to divergent developmental trajectories in offspring with implications for neuroendocrine function and behavioral phenotypes. Study of the long-term outcomes associated with mother-infant interactions suggests complex mechanisms linking the experience of variation in maternal care and these neurobiological consequences. Through integration of genetic, molecular, cellular, neuroanatomical, and neuroendocrine approaches, significant advances in our understanding of these complex pathways have been achieved.