This is a proposal for a competing renewal of an Independent Scientist Award. The first four years of his award have allowed the PI to develop new lines of research, make substantial contributions to the discipline, and expand his research skills considerably. The PI proposes to continue these activities, now adding ligand binding assays and the use of viral vectors and other ways to modify gene expression in the brain to his array of skills. These are very powerful tools to analyze the molecular and cellular basis of behavior. The PI proposes to use these tools to study the functional significance of sex differences in vasopressin innervation of the brain. The central hypothesis driving this grant is that sex differences in neurotransmitter systems may induce sex differences in brain functions and behaviors as well as prevent them. The latter would occur to compensate for hormonal and physiological sex differences that might otherwise have caused undesirable sex differences. Parental behavior in rodents such as prairie voles, in which males as well as females care for the young, is a good example. Hormonal changes associated with pregnancy prime the brain of females for parental behavior. By necessity males must use a different strategy to be parental. This grant explores to what extent the sexually dimorphic vasopressin projections of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and amygdala help male and female voles to generate qualitatively similar parental behavior. These projections, which stimulate parental behavior in males, are much denser in males than in females. The plan is to study how vasopressin or its antagonists influence parental behavior at different stages of the reproductive cycle. The prediction is that interference with vasopressin transmission should cause sex differences in behaviors that otherwise are similar.
A second aim i s to study whether sex differences in these responses are caused by sex differences in gonadal hormone levels during development.
A third aim i s to study whether social conditions that minimize sex differences in parental behavior also change the involvement of vasopressin in parental behavior. Finally, experiments are planned to determine where in the brain vasopressin is likely to control parental behavior in a sexually dimorphic manner. Experiments will test whether social conditions that influence parental behavior change vasopressin receptor occupancy differently in males and females and whether changes in vasopressin receptor expression in turn influence parental behavior. By virtue of its theme, this project will increase what little knowledge is available on the neural control of paternal behavior as well as on the role of sex differences in the brain. Also, by showing that the effects of neuropeptides on behaviors are state- and sex-dependent, this study may affect drug therapies that are based on manipulating neurotransmission, because it underscores the notion that these therapies should be developed independently for men and women.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Scientist Development Award - Research (K02)
Project #
5K02MH001497-07
Application #
6768824
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-IFCN-2 (01))
Program Officer
Quinn, Kevin J
Project Start
1998-06-01
Project End
2008-05-31
Budget Start
2004-06-01
Budget End
2005-05-31
Support Year
7
Fiscal Year
2004
Total Cost
$122,180
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
153926712
City
Amherst
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
01003
de Vries, Geert J; Södersten, Per (2009) Sex differences in the brain: the relation between structure and function. Horm Behav 55:589-96
de Vries, Geert J; Jardon, Michelle; Reza, Mohammed et al. (2008) Sexual differentiation of vasopressin innervation of the brain: cell death versus phenotypic differentiation. Endocrinology 149:4632-7
Rood, B D; Murray, E K; Laroche, J et al. (2008) Absence of progestin receptors alters distribution of vasopressin fibers but not sexual differentiation of vasopressin system in mice. Neuroscience 154:911-21
Rosen, G J; de Vries, G J; Goldman, S L et al. (2008) Distribution of oxytocin in the brain of a eusocial rodent. Neuroscience 155:809-17
de Vries, Geert J (2008) Sex differences in vasopressin and oxytocin innervation of the brain. Prog Brain Res 170:17-27
Hayes, UnJa L; De Vries, Geert J (2007) Role of pregnancy and parturition in induction of maternal behavior in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). Horm Behav 51:265-72
Rosen, Greta J; De Vries, Geert J; Goldman, Sharry L et al. (2007) Distribution of vasopressin in the brain of the eusocial naked mole-rat. J Comp Neurol 500:1093-105
De Vries, G J; Panzica, G C (2006) Sexual differentiation of central vasopressin and vasotocin systems in vertebrates: different mechanisms, similar endpoints. Neuroscience 138:947-55
De Vries, Geert J (2005) Sex steroids and sex chromosomes at odds? Endocrinology 146:3277-9
Lonstein, Joseph S; Rood, Benjamin D; De Vries, Geert J (2005) Unexpected effects of perinatal gonadal hormone manipulations on sexual differentiation of the extrahypothalamic arginine-vasopressin system in prairie voles. Endocrinology 146:1559-67

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