Steroid hormones secreted by the gonads contribute to developmental, seasonal, and individual variations in mammalian social behaviors. Testicular androgens, for example, often influence the sexual and communication patterns of males both developmentally and in adulthood. The goal of the proposed research is to improve our understanding of the relationship between hormones and behavior by studying the mechanisms of androgen action on the brain. Various techniques, including direct application of hormones to the brain, lesioning of discrete brain regions, and steroid hormone autoradiography, will be used to identify brain regions that are sensitive to androgens and that control male sociosexual behaviors. Questions about the role of androgen metabolism in the stimulation of behavior will be addressed by identifying androgen metabolites present in brain regions that control social behaviors and by studying the behavioral effects of drugs that inhibit androgen metabolism. The possibility that androgens influence social behaviors by altering RNA and protein synthesis in the brain will be studied by using drugs that disrupt RNA synthesis and by using immunochemical techniques to assess hormone-induced changes in protein synthesis. Finally, the possibility that sex differences in behavioral sensitivity to hormones result from sex differences in the capacity of brain cell chromatin to bind hormones will be studied by analyzing the binding properties of chromatin from discrete brain regions and by comparing chromatin binding between groups of animals that differ in their sensitivity to steroids as a result of exposure to hormones during early development. This research will be performed using androgen-sensitive sexual and communication behaviors of rodents as model systems.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH026481-13
Application #
3374974
Study Section
Biopsychology Study Section (BPO)
Project Start
1977-08-01
Project End
1988-11-30
Budget Start
1987-12-01
Budget End
1988-11-30
Support Year
13
Fiscal Year
1988
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Irvine
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
161202122
City
Irvine
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
92697
Yahr, Pauline (2015) Two aromatase inhibitors inhibit the ability of a third to promote mating in male rats. Horm Behav 75:41-4
Yahr, Pauline (2011) Sex difference and response to testosterone in gabaergic cells of the medial preoptic nucleus and ventral bed nuclei of the stria terminalis in gerbils. Horm Behav 59:473-6
Simmons, Danielle A; Yahr, Pauline (2011) Nitric oxidergic cells related to ejaculation in gerbil forebrain contain androgen receptor and respond to testosterone. J Comp Neurol 519:900-15
Simmons, D A; Hoffman, N W; Yahr, P (2011) A forebrain-retrorubral pathway involved in male sex behavior is GABAergic and activated with mating in gerbils. Neuroscience 175:162-8
Simmons, Danielle A; Yahr, Pauline (2011) Distribution of catecholaminergic and peptidergic cells in the gerbil medial amygdala, caudal preoptic area and caudal bed nuclei of the stria terminalis with a focus on areas activated at ejaculation. J Chem Neuroanat 41:13-9
Finn, Patricia D; Yahr, Pauline (2005) Projection from the ventral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis to the retrorubral field in rats and the effects of cells in these areas on mating in male rats versus gerbils. Horm Behav 47:123-38
Simmons, Danielle A; Yahr, Pauline (2003) GABA and glutamate in mating-activated cells in the preoptic area and medial amygdala of male gerbils. J Comp Neurol 459:290-300
Simmons, Danielle A; Yahr, Pauline (2002) Projections of the posterodorsal preoptic nucleus and the lateral part of the posterodorsal medial amygdala in male gerbils, with emphasis on cells activated with ejaculation. J Comp Neurol 444:75-94
Heeb, M M; Yahr, P (2001) Anatomical and functional connections among cell groups in the gerbil brain that are activated with ejaculation. J Comp Neurol 439:248-58
Heeb, M M; Yahr, P (2000) Cell-body lesions of the posterodorsal preoptic nucleus or posterodorsal medial amygdala, but not the parvicellular subparafascicular thalamus, disrupt mating in male gerbils. Physiol Behav 68:317-31

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