Swiss scientists found that anxious temperament and low social status are linked in one region in the brain. A common vitamin was used to tweak social hierarchy in laboratory animals.
In the study published Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, neuroscientists at Brain Mind Institute in Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) found that chronic anxiety may lead to lower social status. Using laboratory mice, they identified how levels of stress inherent to personality or trait-anxiety can affect one's competitiveness.
Anxiety disorder is the most common mental illness in the United States that affects 40 million adults aged 18 and older. Though this condition is highly treatable, only one third receive treatment. This disorder is caused by various risk factors including family history or genetics, brain chemistry, personality and life experiences.
People deal with life events in different manners. Some people may be calm while others may feel threatened when faced with hurdles of life. This is termed as train-anxiety and its consequences may affect social life, undermining their confidence to compete for social standing.
To land to their findings, they studied the rat's inclination for anxiety and grouped according to high, intermediate or low. In one test, they matched high-anxiety rats with the ones with low-anxiety level and they were brought to competitive situations. As a result, those who were more anxious were less competitive when matched with a more confident rat. Thus, highly anxious rats were less motivated to compete.
The experiment shows that a part of the brain, nucleus accumbens, which has been related to motivation, reward and depression, has reduced energy metabolism in those highly anxious rats. Their mitochondria function is lower than that of the relaxed ones.
To reverse the condition, the researchers experimented with compounds that can chunk or enhance mitochondria function. Apparently, when given vitamin B3 (niacin), known to enhance brain energy metabolism, they performed better when faced with social situations and eventually, their social hierarchy improved.
On the other hand, those given compounds that block energy metabolism had decreased social competence and social status.
"Our findings highlight a key role for brain energy metabolism in social behavior and point to mitochondrial function in the nucleus accumbens as a potential marker and avenue of treatment for anxiety-related social disorders," the authors wrote in the study.
