Fast, furious and enduring: Sensitive versus critical periods in sexual differentiation of the brain
Fast, furious and enduring: Sensitive versus critical periods in sexual differentiation of the brain
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DOI：
10.1016/j.physbeh.2017.10.030
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发表时间：
2018-04-01
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
Stockman, Sara L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
McCarthy, Margaret M.;Herold, Kevin;Stockman, Sara L.
了解大脑发育的关键时期及其对成人功能的影响是神经科学的主要目标。大脑的性别分化是一个独特的关键期，因为它是由只有一种性别的关键信号分子--胎儿男性的睾酮--的内源性产生启动的。相比之下，女性不会产生睾丸素，但对它高度敏感，并在男性的关键期结束后仍对其男性化效果保持敏感。与其他特征良好的关键期相比，例如视觉系统或桶皮质的关键期，大脑的男性化被压缩到几个短短的日子里，并在产前开始。女性稍长的出生后敏感期为理解这一具有挑战性但基本的发育过程提供了宝贵的工具。
Understanding critical periods in brain development and how they impact adult functioning is a primary goal of neuroscience. The sexual differentiation of the brain is a unique critical period in that it is initiated by endogenous production of a critical signaling molecule in only one sex, testosterone in fetal males. Females, by contrast, do not produce testosterone but are highly responsive to it and remain sensitive to its masculinizing effects well past the close of the critical period in males. Compared to other well characterized critical periods, such as those for the visual system or barrel cortex, the masculinization of the brain is telescoped into a few short days and initiated prenatally. The slightly longer and postnatal sensitive period in females provides a valuable tool for understanding this challenging but fundamental developmental process.