Several studies on social status and neuroscience

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Seeing as us aspies don't generally give a toss about social status, i have been collecting a few links on the neuroscience of social status, so i can figure out how to deal with the status game as a form of defence. My experience in life is that if i do not engage in social status seeking activity, attempts are made to abuse me. As i'm quite strong minded i have ended up in long drawn out conflicts and in some instances ended up with social status that was a pain in the ass to have. It can be harder to convince people you shouldnt have social status than it is to get it. Because NT's are so desperate to have it, like money they can't accept anybody would relinquish it and think thats part of a complex game, so you get respected even more for fooling and perplexing them..

If i understand this better i can pretend i want status, join in the game and make lip service plays, so i do not get picked out as weak, and get involved in drawn out conflicts. I can joke my way out of the process later, saying i changed my mind so i could get on with my hobbies and pretend to be nuttier than i am. I have kind of done this already with some success. So far i have pretended to have psychotic agressive insanity, and people leave me out the status game, but still respect me enough not to give me grief. Unfortunately i found the act hard to switch off and my girlfriend doesnt like it much. What a long winded hassle all this is, just so i can get on what the things i enjoy in peace. If i understood NT brains better, there might be methods where i could use some kind of Derren brown style efficient psychological trickery to stay out this process or play lip service to the NT status game with less effort.

Ok heres the science bits. This study desribes stress and reactions to being with others who have social status..the questions is do aspies really care so much when in the presence of someone with social status, so arent stressed enough to gain it ?

Social status is hard-wired into our brains

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/334062 ... rains.html

Dominance Hierarchy Influences Adult Neurogenesis in the Dentate Gyrus

http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/24/30/6755

This one describes how the hippocampus grows 30% larger in rats who have gained dominant status. Seeing as aspies appear to have good long term memory perhaps the effects of being dominated just do not seem to affect our memories. This study could also tie in with this study which shows that people who gain social status start to use more creative thinking processes.

Thinking Like A President: How Power Affects Complex Decision Making

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 154943.htm

Once again aspies do not need social status to enagage quality problem solving.

also

Know Your Place: Neural Processing of Social Hierarchy in Humans

http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(08)00112-8

This one goes into the brain areas involved in social status, unfortunately i cant get a full paper, but i think it involves the striatum as well as frontal cortex, which implies i think that our behaviour might increase aspects of learning when we gain status.

To summarize it appears that memory, learning, creative problem solving and stress reduction increase when NT's gain status, and decrease when they lose it. No wonder NT's are so crazy about status. The research implies their brains cannot function and get brain damaged without it, although i stand to be corrected.

Do you think that aspies suffer this kind of dysfunction when taken down a peg or two in social scenarios. If not do you think if we pretended to be stressed, slightly insane and dumbfounded when taken down a peg or two, life might be easier ?

It has been my experience that social status of one kind of another will come to affect your life whether you want it to or now since it comes from societal conventions and not from within yourself. Social status is also relative and closely connected with specific niches in society so that you can be lord of the manor with one segment of society and pond scum with another segment both at the same time.
I wouldn't worry about very much as you really don't have any control over society.

Maybe my not caring about status is a result of the grapes being too high up for me to reach? Who knows...maybe if I stood a chance of gaining some social status I might like the game...

If you haven't already, check out articles about the social implications of mirror neurons and their effects on Autism Specrum Disorders.
-OddDuckNash99-

Social-cognitive neuroscience! Yum! Me like!

(I'll write a better post after studying the articles more carefully.)

wow, rogerharris, you're a very good addition to our forums! Welcome aboard! The analogy of the car will stay with me, for sure. Loved it!! My therapist used to say that I "confuse" people and that's why they attack and reject me.

From my POV, endless amount of threads revolving around the topic social status is directly linked to neurology is very depressing. Think about it, it's sooooo fatalistic. It's like admitting doom. Admitting defeat. Best to be a strong person and find fulfilment and self esteem from inner strength. If you are born with something that makes your life a little tougher than everyone else's and you have lived with that it has made you a better person. You have been through more trying times, you are stronger than others who have not. Why not get a sense of esteem from this fact instead of endless lamenting over what you lack and how you will never gain the oh-so-coveted social statuses? You cannot do one thing about who you are born as. You will always be you. Even if you are tired of your gender and have a sex change, you still cannot go from x to y or y to x so, genetically, you will always be what you were conceived as and you cannot change it.

You could just watch that movie "Being There" with Peter Sellers.

It's cool to think people with AS are immune to the effects of social status, at least in one very important way!

Unfortunately, having some knowledge of power dynamics is necessary for maintaining a career. My family tells me all jobs are like this when you work with many other people and there's some hierarchy, but it's obviously less important in temporary, part-time jobs because you probably won't be there long enough for it to matter much.