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Subject: HUMAN BRAIN APPEARS "HARD-WIRED" FOR HIERARCHY

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH
News National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) <http://www.nimh.nih.gov/>
Embargoed For Release: Wednesday, April 23, 2008, 12:00 p.m. EDT 

Contact: Jules Asher, NIMH press office, 301-443-4536, <e-mail:
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HUMAN BRAIN APPEARS "HARD-WIRED" FOR HIERARCHY Scans Hint at Why It Can be
Unhealthy Even at the Top

Human imaging studies have for the first time identified brain circuitry
associated with social status, according to researchers at the National
Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health. They
found 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.
Circuitry activated by important events responded to a potential change in
hierarchical status as much as it did to winning money. 

"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."

Caroline Zink, Ph.D., Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues of
the NIMH Genes Cognition and Psychosis Program, report on their functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in the April 24, 2008, issue of the
journal "Neuron". Meyer-Lindenberg is now director of Germany's Central
Institute of Mental Health.

Prior 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. Yet little is known about how the
human brain translates such factors into health risk.

To find out, 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 included:

 -- 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.

 -- 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 people up -- 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.

 -- 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.

 -- The more positive the mood experienced by participants 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. 

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.

An image of Cover art: hierarchy and brain is available at
<http://nimhcpeaktst.nimh.nih.gov/images/news-items/zinkcoverart3mb-2.jpg>.

Cover art.

An image of Unstable vs. stable hierarchy is available at
<http://nimhcpeaktst.nimh.nih.gov/images/news-items/zinksuperior-inferior_brains
-2.jpg>.

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. 

Source: Caroline Zink, Ph.D., NIMH Genes Cognition and Psychosis Program

An image of Action centers activated is available at
<http://nimhcpeaktst.nimh.nih.gov/images/news-items/zinkriseinstatus_brain-2.jpg
>.

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. 

Source: Caroline Zink, Ph.D., NIMH Genes Cognition and Psychosis Program

An image of Other players' pictures is available at
<http://nimhcpeaktst.nimh.nih.gov/images/news-items/zinkswdl_outcome_screen-2.jp
g>.

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. 

Source: Caroline Zink, Ph.D., NIMH Genes Cognition and Psychosis Program

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) mission is to reduce the burden
of mental and behavioral disorders through research on mind, brain, and
behavior. More information is available at the NIMH website. 

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency
-- is comprised of 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S.
Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency for
conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research,
and investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare
diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit <www.nih.gov>.
-------------------------------------
REFERENCES:
Zink CF, Tong Y, Chen Q, Bassett D, Stein JL, Meyer-Lindenberg A. Know your
place: neural processing of social hierarchy in humans. "Neuron". 2008 Apr 24.
Sapolsky RM. <
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15860617?ordinalpos=26&itool=EntrezSystem2.PE
ntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum > The influence of social
hierarchy on primate health. "Science". 2005 Apr 29;308(5722):648-52.
Review. PMID: 15860617 Marmot MG. <
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16537740?ordinalpos=4&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEn
trez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum > Status syndrome: a challenge
to medicine. "JAMA". 2006 Mar 15;295(11):1304-7. No abstract available. PMID:
16537740 

##

This NIH News Release is available online at:
<http://www.nih.gov/news/health/apr2008/nimh-23.htm>.

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