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High testosterone levels result in competitive status-seeking social behaviours.

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Oxytocin's effects on human social behavior aren't clear. Some studies reveal significant positive changes, yet others show none at all. In many animals, from rodents to non-human primates, it's a different story: Oxytocin has been proven to increase positive social behaviors and attention paid to others, and reduce negative social behaviors like threats and vigilance.

Such findings typically derive from work that includes specific tasks performed by the subjects, either people or animals. But Penn neuroscientist Michael Platt and postdoctoral researcher Yaoguang Jiang wanted to understand what happens during spontaneous, naturally occurring interactions following inhalation and injection of both oxytocin and a similar neuropeptide, vasopressin.

In a study published in Scientific Reports, they found that in male rhesus macaques, the hormones flatten group hierarchy, resulting in dominant monkeys becoming more relaxed and subordinate monkeys becoming more confident. This holds even when just one of a pair receives oxytocin or vasopressin, indicating some sort of non-verbal communication between the animals.

"This society, which is often described as despotic, hierarchical, and regulated by aggression and submission, becomes more egalitarian. Everyone is a little nicer to everyone else," says Platt, a Penn Integrates Knowledge professor with appointments in the Perelman School of Medicine, the School of Arts and Sciences, and Wharton. "They synchronize their facial expressions and their behavior more tightly in time. In other words, they're paying more attention to each other and when you do this, you get information more quickly and you respond more quickly."

The work, the first of its kind, involved giving one macaque oxytocin, vasopressin, or saline via inhalation or injection, then pairing him seven times, six with different monkeys and once with an empty chair, in a random order. For their protection, the animals could not physically touch. However, they could interact and could see, hear, and smell each other. The researchers recorded a five-minute exchange, then two separate observers scored the behavior, frame by frame. Seven macaques participated in the inhalation work, and seven participated in the injection work.

"Social dominance in monkeys is a really big deal. They live and breathe for it. But here, the curve got flattened," says Jiang, who has worked in the Platt Labs for more than two years. "If you were in the middle, you stayed in the middle. But if you were lower-ranking and you used to be timid, you got a little more assertive, and if you were super dominant, you still knew you were the boss but you were a little more chill about it. You weren't always trying to pick a fight."

What's more, the alignment of actions-what's known as behavioral synchrony-when only one half of a duo got the hormone indicates non-verbal cues underlying the activity, Jiang explains. "Somehow they were conveying this information to each other," she says. "Communication was obviously not verbal, but little gestures." This is consistent with previous work from Platt showing that oxytocin increases how long one monkey looks at and pays attention to another monkey.

Vasopressin lead to the same outcome as oxytocin, which actually complicates the picture of how such hormones work. Receptors for the two are located in different parts of the brain, and can bind to both hormones. By injecting small amounts of the hormones into a brain area that only contains vasopressin receptors, Platt and Jiang found that oxytocin appeared to be binding to vasopressin receptors to change behavior.

"Our understanding of how all of this is going to work is much more complicated than originally thought," Platt says. "We have to consider this whole other system, the vasopressin system."

In theory, digging deep into these hormones and their underlying mechanisms could potentially lead to breakthroughs in therapeutic treatments for social disorders such as autism and schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It may also help children who have had pituitary tumors removed, a procedure that can damage the hypothalamus and lead to ravenous overeating for reasons still unknown. Because oxytocin regulates feeding and social behavior, there's treatment potential there, something Platt and colleagues are testing via a clinical trial at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

"We anticipate that for these kids, there is a whole set of underlying social problems that people aren't dialed into because they're focused on the fact that the kids can't stop eating," Platt explains. "We're trying to determine whether when we treat them for overeating, that also improves social functions."

This overall work builds on research Platt has conducted on non-human primates for more than two decades. In particular, rhesus macaques offer a valuable comparison to humans because the animals model many of the same social behaviors, live in large groups, and form long-term social bonds.

Their reaction to oxytocin and vasopressin also seems to mirror that of people. Yet despite such incremental advancements in knowledge, there's still much to understand, Platt says. "We have a lot more to learn about how, when, and in what manner we use these peptide hormones to treat various problems."

Funding for the research came from the National Institute for Mental Health and the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative.
Michael Platt is the James S. Riepe University Professor in the Psychology department in the School of Arts and Sciences, the Neuroscience department in the Perelman School of Medicine, and the Marketing department at the Wharton School. Yaoguang Jiang is a postdoctoral researcher in the Platt Labs.

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Oxytocin, vasopressin flatten social hierarchy and synchronize behaviors | Penn Today

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Findings from a study of male rhesus macaques from PIK professor Michael Platt and postdoc Yaoguang Jiang could lead to treatment options for social impairments in disorders like autism and schizophrenia.

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Animal models of the role of testosterone in social interactions

Early evidence for the role of testosterone in social behavior suggested that it facilitates overt physical aggression (see Glossary) in social contexts. For instance, castrated rodents, which have little, if any, testosterone circulating in their blood, show a near-complete absence of physical fights; however, fights can be fully restored by providing testosterone supplementation to these animals [3].

However, the role of testosterone in facilitating aggression appears to be limited to specific

Testosterone and human aggression

Does testosterone have the same aggression-related behavioral effects in humans as it appears to have in non-human animals? This question continues to generate substantial controversy in the literature. Two factors could be related to this.

First, studies on physical aggression in humans have been limited to researching the correlation between plasma hormone levels and observed aggressive behaviors in field studies. For instance, high testosterone levels in male prisoners have been linked to

Social modulation of testosterone

Do social interactions, in turn, also affect testosterone levels? An impressive example of context effects on testosterone is the recent finding that men show a larger increase in testosterone when exposed to the scent of an ovulating woman compared with that of a non-ovulating woman or a control [27].

Apart from sexual social stimuli, which are reliable inductors of a testosterone response 28, 29, social interactions outside a direct reproductive context have also been shown to induce a

Glossary

Aggression

behavior with the intent of inflicting physical or psychological harm on another individual.

Anti-predatory aggression

aggression in defense against predatory aggression.

Dominance aggression

aggression with the aim of achieving dominance over another individual; for example, during competing for food or valued resources, or in resisting control measures.

Dominance hierarchy

the organization of individuals in a group into those that are dominant and those that are submissive, as part of

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The role of testosterone in social interaction

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Although animal researchers established the role of testosterone as a 'social hormone' decades ago, the investigation of its causal influence on human...

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The main hormones that play a part in blood glucose regulation are insulin and glucagon which are in a negative feedback loop. This means when there is an excess of one hormone and blood glucoses is going up/down too much, then the counter hormone is released.

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Estrogen

Progesterone

Prolactin

Cortisol

Testosterone

Examples: Building nests, guarding, carrying, huddling, grooming and teaching their young - https://www.ck12.org/book/ck-12-biology-advanced-concepts/section/14.16/ and https://academic.oup.com/book/25631/chapter/193032576

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Oxytocin(OT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP)

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Oxytocin(OT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP)

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OT aids in labour and delivery alongside lactation. It is made in the hypothalamus

Arginine vasopressin aids in reabsorption of water in the kidneys, this aids in the scenting behaviour of many animals

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Animas like wolves and bug cats scent mark their territory with hormones and birds produce bird songs to warn other animals away.

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Observe the aggressive social behaviour of territorial perciform jawfish fighting over burrow proximity

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. See all videos for this article

territorial behaviour, in zoology, the methods by which an animal, or group of animals, protects its territory from incursions by others of its species. Territorial boundaries may be marked by sounds such as bird song, or scents such as pheromones secreted by the skin glands of many mammals. If such advertisement does not discourage intruders, chases and fighting follow.

Territorial behaviour is adaptive in many ways; it may permit an animal to mate without interruption or to raise its young in an area where there will be little competition for food. It can also prevent overcrowding by maintaining an optimum distance among members of a population. Territories may be seasonal; in many songbirds the mated pair defends the nest and feeding area until after the young are fledged. In communally nesting birds such as gulls, the territory may simply consist of the nest itself.

Wolf packs maintain territories in which they hunt and live. These areas are aggressively defended from all non-pack members. The male cougar has a large territory that may overlap the territories of several females but is defended against other males. Responding to scent marks, the inhabitants of the overlapping ranges also avoid each other, except for breeding.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Adam Augustyn.

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territorial behaviour | Definition, Examples, & Facts

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territorial behaviour, in zoology, the methods by which an animal, or group of animals, protects its territory from incursions by others of its species. Territorial boundaries may be marked by sounds such as bird song, or scents such as pheromones secreted by the skin glands of many mammals.

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Ghrelin is the hormone that detects the animals hunger. It is known as the “hunger hormone”.

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Stags tend to fight other stags so they get the females. Hormones like testosterone play a large part in this.

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Steroid sex hormone involved in the menstrual cycle. Responsible for fat distributions and aids in the development of mammary glands, uterus and vagina during pregnancy.

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Triggered by ovulation

Estradiol

Progesterone

Prolactin

Wild animals nest in low sheltered spots which provide protection against predators and competitors that mean to exploit or kill offspring. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277539518304199

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https://www.mpg.de/19447879/do-hormone-fluctuations-increase-survival-probabilities

Animals release the hormone cortisol when they are stressed.

Glucocorticoids are se created by vertebrates in response to unpredictable and noxious stimuli.

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Great tits reveal how birds cope with changes in environmental temperatures

Free-living great tits differ considerably in the level of stress hormones in their blood. A research project at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence (in foundation) studied the birds over several years. The scientists observed large differences in how strongly glucocorticoid hormone levels fluctuated in individual great tits, as the birds experienced different environmental temperatures. Such differences among individuals can make it easier for bird populations to adapt to changing conditions - such as more frequent temperature extremes due to climate change.

Hormones control vital body functions in many animals, including birds. They help animals to regulate metabolism and food intake, thereby supporting them in maintaining their body temperature within a certain range. Glucocorticoids are stress hormones that coordinate many of the functions that help animals to cope with changes in their environment. On cold days, they are produced in larger amounts and help the body to use carbohydrate, fat, and protein reserves to generate heat. When temperatures are higher, glucocorticoid levels decrease and so does the conversion of energy into body heat.

In environments with widely fluctuating temperatures, stabilizing body temperature by hormones becomes increasingly important. Small warm-blooded animals such as birds must respond quickly to temperature fluctuations in order to maintain their body temperature. As a consequence of climate change, many habitats undergo major changes in environmental conditions, and extreme temperatures occur more frequently. Yet, how much does the climate affect the hormone balance of birds? Do individuals cope differently with climate change?

To answer these questions, data must be collected over several years. Research group leader Michaela Hau and two colleagues thus determined the glucocorticoid levels of a population of great tits in southern Bavaria over five years. They related their measurements to environmental temperatures and found, as expected, that hormone levels were higher at colder temperatures. However, there were also large differences in the responses of individual birds to temperature fluctuations.

Large indivual differences

"We observed for the first time in free-living vertebrates that some individuals show a more pronounced adjustment in glucocorticoid levels to environmental temperature than others," says Michaela Hau. "This variation among individuals may allow populations to cope with a wide range of environmental conditions." Further studies are needed to determine whether the observed hormonal differences among individuals lead to differences in heat production or resistance to heat loss. It is also unknown whether this individual variation is associated with increased reproductive success or survival.

"If the strength of glucocorticoid changes has a heritable component and individuals with certain hormonal responses produce more offspring or survive longer, natural selection may alter the composition of populations in subsequent generations," Michaela Hau explains. "Our work therefore is an important basis for understanding whether and how animals can adapt to climate change."

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great tit; stress hormones; glucocorticoids; climate change

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Do hormone fluctuations increase survival probabilities?

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Great tits reveal how birds cope with changes in environmental temperatures

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The hormones testosterone, oestrogen and progesterone influence mating behaviour.

Signals are created outside of the body and these are called pheromones and help animals communicate in the wild.

testosterone helps the development of sperm and male characteristics.

Estrogen and progesterone helps the development of eggs and female characteristics.

Hormones regulate homeostasis and enhance important traits in animals. They include fertility , growth , development , health.

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After an animal has feed, then the blood glucose start rising in the animal until it get dangerously high. Then pituitary gland sends a hormone to the pancreas which then secretes insulin and the liver coverts glucose into glycogen. This causes blood glucose levels to down. When the glucose levels get to low then the pituitary gland stops the insulin being produced and starts producing glucagon which causes glycogen to start being turned back into glucoses which can be released into blood stream which then increase blood glucose levels. This cycle continues until the animal starts to feel Hungary and feeds again.