The Dominance Behavioural System: A Review of Psychophysiological Features and Neurobiological Markers

Abstract

This article provides a review of the literature data on the association between personal characteristics belonging to the behavioural dominance system and various psychophysiological, hormonal, and neurobiological indices. Social and behavioural features characteristic of dominance and subordination are described. The review discusses the studies showing the relationship between the indices of dominant or subordinate behaviours and adaptive capacity as well as levels of trait and state anxiety of individuals in different social contexts. Further, the key hormonal mechanisms underlying social dominance are reviewed. The dual-hormone hypothesis of dominance regulation under social stress is illustrated through studies showing the correlation between the changes in adrenocortical and sex hormone levels and their joint effect on the regulation of hierarchical status. Individual characteristics of prevalence or balance between the behavioural activation (motivation of gaining reward) and inhibition (motivation of avoiding failure) systems were found to play a crucial role in achieving higher dominance and the formation of ideas about one’s own social status. In addition, the neurophysiological and neurochemical mechanisms involved in the regulation of social hierarchical relationships are discussed. The review describes the features of brain activation during social interaction, including dominance and subordination, as well as context-dependent perception of one’s own social status and that of the opponent. The behavioural dominance system is proposed to be considered in the framework of the theory of functional systems, its architectonics, and central principles (interaction between its components, afferent synthesis, decision making, action program, and action result acceptor). Based on the systemic principles, social factors can be viewed as major environmental and triggering stimuli which affect the afferent synthesis, modulate the action program, and change the appraisal of results achieved by individuals during social interactions.