Abstract:

Social status hierarchy is one of the basic principles in human society. N200 was found to be activated in the recognition of social status hierarchies, face recognition and visual attention. The recognition of social status hierarchies also at different levels involved brain regions of emotional expressions (e.g. prefrontal cortex, PFC), social and monetary rewards (e.g. striatum), empathy traits (e.g. anterior cingutate cortex, ACC), and numerical magnitude (e.g. bilateral intraparietal sulci, IPS). Social status hierarchy was founded dynamic by nature, and complicatedly interacted with genetic and environmental factors, such as serotonin neurotransmitter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR), glucocorticoid (GC), basal testosterone (T) and other factors of neuroendocrine system. These issues constituted the main focus points, and it would be an important approach to explore social status hierarchies by means of comprehensive research and system analysis in future.

Key words: social status hierarchies, N200, frontal regions, 5-HTTLPR