Social dominance differentially alters gene expression in the medial prefrontal cortex without affecting adult hippocampal neurogenesis or stress and anxiety-like behavior

What is it about?

The social structure of group-living subjects are relevant both for human beings and animals. One of the key aspects of this structure is the dominance hierarchy, a property conferring stability and efficacy to the group. However, many details of the mechanisms by which this social dominance is controlled in the brain are not known. Especially important is to know if the social dominance is necessarily associated to stress or anxiety because of aggressiveness, as well as whether the genes in the cerebral cortex are distinctly expressed between individuals of different social status._x000D_ _x000D_ In this work we have addressed the question whether the dominance hierarchy measured in a non-aggressive way is associated to stress, anxiety, locomotor activity and hierarchy rank-associated differences in gene expression. We have found that dominant and subordinate animals in group-living male mice show different gene expression in the cerebral cortex, even although no stress, or anxiety, or changes in adult neurogenesis were associated to the social status.

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