Gonadal Hormone Involvement in Brain Activity

性腺激素参与大脑活动

• 批准号: 9514888
• 负责人: Jill Becker
• 金额: $ 24.74万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1996
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1996-03-01 至 2000-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9514888&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Gonadal; Hormone; Involvement; Brain; Activity

9514888 Becker The gonadal steroid hormones have long been known to influence female behaviors. However, the mechanism by which these hormones generate their behavioral effects is largely unknown. There are data that do not conform to the classical mechanism for steroid hormone action, i.e. binding of hormone to intracellular receptors and subsequently altering nuclear gene transcription. Consequently, novel non-genomic effects have been postulated by investigators, including Dr. Becker, to resolve the temporal inconsistencies between the behavioral observations and the time required to alter gene transcription. The present research goes beyond this level to explore the non-genomic effects of the steroid hormones in specific brain regions and investigates the ability of steroid hormones to influence dopaminergic neuronal activity in the striatum and accumbens, and how this classical neurotransmitter acts in these areas to modulate female behavior. Moreover, other investigator have shown a strong interaction between striatal dopamine and gamma-aminobutyric acid in controlling movement. Logically, Dr. Becker will investigate how estrogen alters the activity of the neurons containing these neurotransmitters and the direct consequences on female behavior which is dependent on movement. These studies are exciting and highly innovative. They will revolutionize the thinking about female behaviors and the components required for their generation. Investigating the interaction of dopamine-and gamma-aminobutyric acid-containing neurons in the striatum may open new avenues for understanding presynaptic regulatory mechanisms in the brain, which will impact not only the neuroendocrinology field, but may also reveal more about the behavior of animals in their natural habitats and the critical cues that trigger female behaviors.

9514888贝克尔性腺类固醇激素很早就知道会影响女性的行为。然而，这些激素产生行为影响的机制在很大程度上是未知的。有一些数据不符合类固醇激素作用的经典机制，即激素与细胞内受体结合，随后改变核基因转录。因此，包括贝克尔博士在内的研究人员提出了新的非基因组效应的假设，以解决行为观察和改变基因转录所需时间之间的时间不一致问题。目前的研究超越了这一水平，探索了类固醇激素在特定大脑区域的非基因组效应，并调查了类固醇激素影响纹状体和伏隔区多巴胺能神经元活动的能力，以及这种经典的神经递质如何在这些区域发挥作用来调节女性的行为。此外，其他研究人员还发现纹状体多巴胺和γ-氨基丁酸在控制运动方面存在很强的相互作用。从逻辑上讲，贝克尔博士将研究雌激素如何改变含有这些神经递质的神经元的活动，以及对依赖运动的女性行为的直接影响。这些研究令人振奋，极具创新性。她们将彻底改变人们对女性行为和她们这一代人所需的组成部分的看法。研究纹状体中含有多巴胺和γ-氨基丁酸的神经元之间的相互作用可能为理解大脑中的突触前调节机制开辟新的途径，这不仅将影响神经内分泌学领域，还可能揭示更多关于动物在自然栖息地的行为以及触发雌性行为的关键线索。