Social control of brain morphology in a eusocial mammal

collapsar submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.pnas.org)

"Social status impacts reproductive behavior in diverse vertebrate species, but little is known about how it affects brain morphology. We explore this in the naked mole-rat, a species with the most rigidly organized reproductive hierarchy among mammals. Naked mole-rats live in large, subterranean colonies where breeding is restricted to a single female and small number of males. All other members of the colony, known as subordinates, are reproductively suppressed

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: brain morphology eusocial mammal eusociality neuroplasticity reproductive strategy sex difference social status

Decreased frontal white-matter volume in chronic substance abuse