Steroid and peptide hormones have a major impact on the behavior of mammals. While it is believed that many of the behavioral effects of hormones result from their action on the central nervous system, how hormones change brain function to influence behavior is not well understand. Dr. Albers, who has previously received support from the National Science Foundation, will continue his work on steroid-peptide-transmitter interactions, a general problem of substantial interest in neurobiology. Sophisticated anatomical and biochemical techniques are used to examine a sexually dimorphic communicative behavior which has proven to be an excellent model system. Specifically, Dr. Albers will focus on three different brain sites where it is believed that vasopressin, a neuropeptide, interacts with the gonadal steroid hormones testosterone and estradiol to regulate communicative behavior. He will determine whether the gonadal steroids influence the behavior by changing the amount of vasopressin that can be released at these brain sites or by changing its sensitivity at a particular brain site. Moreover, Dr. Albers will explore the interconnections of the three brain regions implicated in the control of this behavior and thus, provide new information about their neural circuitry. He will also investigate whether social factors that influence the expression of this communicative behavior do so by altering the activity of vasopressin in the brain. Finally, a carefully designed set of pharmacological studies will be carried out to determine how the noradrenergic transmitter system is involved in coordinating the expression of this communicative and other behaviors. The results from these studies will make an important contribution to our understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying the relationship between the nervous and endocrine systems in the regulation of behavior.
