Neuron 58, 273–283 doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2008.01.025 (2008)

Social hierarchy is a major determinant of health and mortality, yet how the brain processes group position has been shrouded in mystery. By monitoring blood flow in gamers' brains, Caroline Zink, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg and their colleagues at the US National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, have revealed distinct brain activity patterns that form in response to status cues.

The researchers set artificial hierarchies by assigning 72 volunteers a skill rank in a computer game that flagged onscreen opponents as superior or inferior players. But the opponents were really computers, and the games and ranks were rigged so that status was only perceived. One of the authors' discoveries is that brain regions associated with emotion or pain become busier when gamers are losing to inferior opponents.