Interesting. Makes one think if Hierarchy is something inbred in us, or if it's a product of conditioning.  

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:34:11 -0400
>From: Meir Weiss <[log in to unmask]>  
>Subject: FW: HUMAN BRAIN APPEARS "HARD-WIRED" FOR HIERARCHY?  
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
> 
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: NIH news releases and news items [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
>Of NIH OLIB (NIH/OD)
>Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 12:04
>To: [log in to unmask]
>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:
>[log in to unmask]>
>
>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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