Biochemistry of the status

In the middle of the seventies, McGuire and Raleigh [1] began a fruitful investigation line on the relations between domination and cerebral chemistry. These investigators demonstrated that in a macaque species, the changes in the serotonina level were related to changes in the status of the animal. In a series of fascinating experiments, they thought that if an animal of low status was separating and one was treating him with the medicine Prozac, which raises the serotonina, it is observed that the treated animal was rising from status to having returned to the group, in some cases until alpha to turn into the leader or male. This result is particularly interesting because it indicates us that a biochemical property of the brain can be the result of the interaction with the ambience and, at the same time, the modification of this property into pharmacological methods can change the type of interaction between an individual and the rest. Ambience and brain are a highway of double route.

In these experiments, the domineering macaques were showing a 'moderate' and 'auto-controlled' conduct; on the other hand, the individuals subordinated tended to be startled and his conduct seemed to be governed by external stimuli, more than interns. In these individuals, an emotional outburst was observed and even a tendency to the compulsive aggression against other individuals. The ethologists interpret that in individuals of low status, the low serotonina levels turn out to be beneficial since they inhibit his activity motorboat, allowing them to save energy and avoid confrontations with individuals of high status. The emotional outburst observed in these individuals turns out to be, at first sight, paradoxical; nevertheless, the relation between serotonina fall and aggressive and impulsive conduct has been demonstrated in many species. It is possible that this impulsive tendency in individuals of low status also has an adaptive value. Let's remember that to be to the fund of the scale of domination is a quite bad situation from the reproductive point of view. It is necessary to think that an individual who should be in this situation should face the ‘death darwiniana’, this is after progeny does not stop. In these circumstances, an impetuous conduct, like snatching the meal from an individual of major status, can turn out to be beneficial. Let's not forget that the chronic incapability to control the aggressiveness can determine that an individual loses his integration in the group. In most cases, this has a reproductive cost for the above mentioned individual, but if this one finds close to the 'fund' of the scale his exit of the group it can turn out to be indifferent, or even beneficial in reproductive terms by means of alternative social strategies (such like clandestine copulations or the search of a new group). Sometimes, a desperate situation needs a desperate solution.

[1] Raleigh, M.J., McGuire, M.T., Brammer, G.L., Pollack, D.B., and Yuwiler, A. (1991) “Setoninergic mechanisms promote dominance acquisition in adult male vervet monkeys” Brain Res. 559:181-190