Mating is a complex motivated behavior whose expression requires the interaction of odors and gonadal steroids. These studies have relevance to understanding the regulation of complex behaviors in humans and animals because sensory and hormonal stimuli are seldom present in isolation. Instead, an organism in a natural setting is confronted with multiple signals from its internal and external environment, and the product of multimodal integration transforms the individual characteristics of these stimuli to produce a rich behavioral response. The Syrian hamster is used as a model for these studies because the male is dependent upon both odors and hormones to mate, and the basic neural circuits that mediate this behavior are known. These studies will contribute to a growing literature that hormones interact with chemosensory, visual, nutritional, and somatosensory cues to regulate reproduction. One hallmark of hormone-sensitive brain regions is the dense interconnections between steroid receptor-containing nuclei to form a hormone-responsive neural network. This network structure has profound implications for steroidal regulation of neural function. In 1986, Cottingham and Pfaff proposed that properties of the hormone-responsive neural network could include redundancy, amplification, stability and selective filtering of steroid cues to regulate reproduction, concepts which can be applied to the steroidal control of male hamster sexual behavior. The PI's laboratory recently determined that communication between odors and hormones is required for mating, and Specific Aim 1 will investigate where in the brain this is accomplished. In particular Aim 1A will use intracerebral implants of testosterone to test the hypothesis that there exist separate parallel subcircuits for transmission of odors and hormones, and that the hormonal subcircuit is functionally redundant.
Aim 1 B will combine intracerebral implants with unilateral olfactory bulbectomy to determine sites for integration of hormonal cues with odors. The implication is that hormones act as a selective filter for odor cues to permit mating.
Specific Aim 2 will test the hypothesis that multifocal steroid action amplifies male sexual behavior using multiple implants of testosterone in the mating behavior pathway. Finally, Specific Aim 3 will investigate stability of the mating behavior circuitry through reciprocal connections of steroid-responsive subnuclei.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH055034-03
Application #
6140124
Study Section
Psychobiology, Behavior, and Neuroscience Review Committee (PBN)
Project Start
1997-06-15
Project End
1999-07-31
Budget Start
1999-06-01
Budget End
1999-07-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
1999
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Yale University
Department
Obstetrics & Gynecology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
082359691
City
New Haven
State
CT
Country
United States
Zip Code
06520
Sato, Satoru M; Schulz, Kalynn M; Sisk, Cheryl L et al. (2008) Adolescents and androgens, receptors and rewards. Horm Behav 53:647-58
Triemstra, Jennifer L; Sato, Satoru M; Wood, Ruth I (2008) Testosterone and nucleus accumbens dopamine in the male Syrian hamster. Psychoneuroendocrinology 33:386-94
Antzoulatos, Eleni; Magorien, Julie E; Wood, Ruth I (2008) Cell proliferation and survival in the mating circuit of adult male hamsters: effects of testosterone and sexual behavior. Horm Behav 54:735-40
Wood, Ruth I (2007) Sex and drugs: comment on ""Evidence for involvement of erbeta and rgs9-2 in 17-beta estradiol enhancement of amphetamine-induced place preference behavior"" by Silverman and Koenig. Horm Behav 52:143-5
Ballard, Cortney L; Wood, Ruth I (2007) Partner preference in male hamsters: steroids, sexual experience and chemosensory cues. Physiol Behav 91:1-8
Wood, R I; Swann, J M (2005) The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis in the Syrian hamster: subnuclei and connections of the posterior division. Neuroscience 135:155-79
Wood, Ruth I; Johnson, Luke R; Chu, Lucy et al. (2004) Testosterone reinforcement: intravenous and intracerebroventricular self-administration in male rats and hamsters. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 171:298-305
Peters, Kelly D; Hom, Steve M; Wood, Ruth I (2004) Testosterone and chemosensory detection in male Syrian hamster. Horm Behav 46:341-8
Wood, R I; Williams, S J (2001) Steroidal control of male hamster sexual behavior in Me and MPOA: effects of androgen dose and tamoxifen. Physiol Behav 72:727-33
Johnson, L R; Wood, R I (2001) Oral testosterone self-administration in male hamsters. Neuroendocrinology 73:285-92