Hormonal Control of an Avian Neuromuscular System

尽管已知雄激素会自然影响人类的多个神经肌肉过程和运动疾病状态，但这些影响可能很难研究，因为很少有“运动型”动物模型。施林格实验室研究了一种有着异常复杂的身体求偶表现的鸟类的神经肌肉动力学的荷尔蒙控制。这些鸟类在大脑和肌肉组织中大量表达雄激素受体，这让我们有机会了解激素是如何通过对大脑和周围肌肉的作用来实现复杂的身体行为的。该项目的具体目标包括使用肌电图学来确定激素如何作用于骨骼肌以刺激适当的肌肉收缩，使用分子技术来解决激素如何控制骨骼肌中适应肌肉收缩的基因的表达，最后使用神经解剖学跟踪技术来评估大脑如何与雄激素敏感的肌肉连接。这些研究将直接扩大对荷尔蒙对身体组织作用的理解，并将影响对荷尔蒙治疗和/或荷尔蒙滥用的潜在利弊的思考。这项研究也为年轻科学家提供了一个独特的培训机会，特别是那些在生理科学中代表性较差的人。

Although it is known that androgenic hormones naturally impact multiple neuromuscular processes as well as motor-disease states in humans, these effects can be difficult to study because there are few "athletic" animal models. The Schlinger laboratory studies hormonal control of neuromuscular dynamics in a bird that has an extraordinarily complex physical courtship display. These birds express androgen receptors in brain and musculature in high amounts giving us the opportunity to understand how hormones enable complex physical behavior by actions on the brain and peripheral muscles. The specific goals of this project include use of electromyography to determine how hormones act on skeletal muscles to stimulate appropriate muscle contractions, the use of molecular techniques to address how hormones control expression of genes in skeletal muscles that adapt the muscles for contraction and lastly neuroanatomical tracing techniques to assess how the brain connects with androgen sensitive muscles. These studies will directly expand the understanding of hormone action on body-tissues and they stand to impact thinking about potential advantages and disadvantages to hormone therapies and/or hormone abuse. This research also serves as a unique training opportunity for young scientists, particularly those poorly represented in the physiological sciences.