ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2015
Mitochondrial function in the brain links anxiety with social subordination.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 153 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
153 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 292 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neurochemical Alterations in Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD): A Systematic Review of Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Studies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Stress and circulating cell-free mitochondrial DNA: A systematic review of human studies, physiological considerations, and technical recommendations.Mitochondrion · 2021Pooled it
- Psychological Stress and Mitochondria: A Systematic Review.Psychosomatic medicinePooled it
- Energy-dependent modulation of nucleus accumbens output via K-ATP channel activity.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Nucleus accumbens neuron subtype translatome signatures in socially stressed females.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Brain mitochondria as key drivers of cognition and behaviour.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Strain-Dependent Network Activity Differences Underlie Social Decision-Making in Male Mice.eNeuro · 2026Article
- Role of Antioxidant Systems and Heat Shock Response in Aquatic Animals Under Multistress Conditions.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Individualised mapping of living human brain mitochondria by MRI reveals signatures of bioenergetic defects.Research square · 2026Article
- Mitofusin-2 in ventral striatal D1 neurons regulates effort-based motivation through sex-specific mitochondrial-synaptic reprogramming.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Mitochondrial calcium modulates odor-mediated behavioral plasticity in Caenorhabditis elegans.Molecules and cells · 2026Article
- Chronic Exposure toInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Individualised mapping of living human brain mitochondria by MRI reveals signatures of bioenergetic defects.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Mitochondrial dynamics in neurodevelopment and neurodevelopmental disorders.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Compartment-Specific Mitochondrial Proteomic Alterations in Rat Hippocampus Following Chronic Social Isolation Stress.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Glutamatergic projections from the substantia nigra pars reticulata to the dorsal raphe nucleus regulate male social hierarchies.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Inhibition of stress resilience and adult hippocampal neurogenesis by platelet-derived LPA16:0 in anxiety.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Expanding the cognitive spectrum of mitochondrial diseases.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026Article
- Mitochondrial CaNature metabolism · 2026Article
- The allostatic triage model of psychopathology (ATP Model): How reallocation of brain energetic resources under stress elicits psychiatric symptoms.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025Review
93 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Dominance hierarchies are integral aspects of social groups, yet whether personality traits may predispose individuals to a particular rank remains unclear. Here we show that trait anxiety directly influences social dominance in male outbred rats and identify an important mediating role for mitochondrial function in the nucleus accumbens. High-anxious animals that are prone to become subordinate during a social encounter with a low-anxious rat exhibit reduced mitochondrial complex I and II proteins and respiratory capacity as well as decreased ATP and increased ROS production in the nucleus accumbens. A causal link for these findings is indicated by pharmacological approaches. In a dyadic contest between anxiety-matched animals, microinfusion of specific mitochondrial complex I or II inhibitors into the nucleus accumbens reduced social rank, mimicking the low probability to become dominant observed in high-anxious animals. Conversely, intraaccumbal infusion of nicotinamide, an amide form of vitamin B3 known to enhance brain energy metabolism, prevented the development of a subordinate status in high-anxious individuals. We conclude that mitochondrial function in the nucleus accumbens is crucial for social hierarchy establishment and is critically involved in the low social competitiveness associated with high anxiety. 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.
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