‘What Happens If The Alpha Male Loses Status?’ research

Social status is a critical topic in the animal kingdom. Leadership, privileges through status, and ‘being alpha’, the drive to leadAvailable in many species, from mice to humans.

A study investigating the neurological effects of loss of status in individuals is ‘alpha males’. loss of status has serious effects is showing.

In the study conducted on mice, symptoms of depression stand out;

Mice live in a systematic hierarchy in their natural lives. Of course, this also applies to mice living in laboratories. The alpha males of the group are concerned about the female mice, the food, even the place to go to the toilet. they have more rights. In these groups, in which the strong one is naturally alpha, the weak links in a way yield to the alphas.

What the research team did was to help them get ahead and favor the weak. will help them beat the alphas was to create some controlled environments.

They set up a mechanism by bringing an alpha mouse and an ‘ordinary mouse’ nose to nose in a tube and closing the exit so that they could only exit from the direction of the alpha mouse. So for the mice to get out of the narrow tube, the alpha had to go back and give way to the ordinary mouse. Although the alpha mouse initially resisted, at the end of this experiment, which was done ten times over four days, the other began to voluntarily place the mouse.

The mouse that moved to the ‘strong’ position became the new alpha, while the old alpha mouse lost all its privileges. Soon in the old alpha symptoms of depression began. Losing alphas were also found in different experiments carried out. ‘to give up quicker’ they started.

Researchers examining neural movements in mice to obtain the results found that it is also found in humans and in the brain. ‘center of disappointment’ He determined that there was a great mobility in the lateral habenula region, which is called the lateral habenula, after the loss of status. The rats regained their alpha while the symptoms of depression stopped with the drug treatment.