INTEGRATION OF CHEMOSENSORY AND HORMONAL STIMULI

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）：交配是一个复杂的 有动机的行为，其表达需要气味的相互作用， 性腺类固醇 这些研究有助于理解 调节人类和动物的复杂行为，因为感官和 激素刺激很少单独存在。 相反，一个有机体， 自然环境面临着来自其内部的多种信号， 外部环境，以及多模式整合的产物 这些刺激的个体特征产生丰富的行为 反应 叙利亚仓鼠被用作这些研究的模型，因为 雄性依赖气味和激素来交配， 调节这种行为的神经回路是已知的。 这些研究将 有助于越来越多的文献表明激素与化学感受器相互作用， 视觉、营养和躯体感觉线索来调节生殖。 大脑对疼痛敏感区域的一个标志是 含有类固醇受体的核之间的相互连接，形成一个 响应式神经网络 这种网络结构具有深刻的 对类固醇调节神经功能的影响。 1986年， Cottingham和Pfaff提出， 神经网络可以包括冗余、放大、稳定性和 选择性过滤类固醇线索来调节生殖， 可应用于雄性仓鼠性行为的类固醇控制。 PI的实验室最近确定，气味和 交配需要激素，具体目标1将调查 在大脑中完成。 具体而言，目标1A将使用 脑内植入睾丸激素，以验证假设， 存在用于传输气味和激素的单独的并联支路， 荷尔蒙回路功能上是多余的 目标1B将 联合收割机脑内植入物与单侧嗅球切除术相结合， 确定荷尔蒙信号与气味结合的部位。 的 这意味着激素作为气味线索的选择性过滤器， 允许交配。 具体目标2将检验多灶性 类固醇作用放大男性性行为使用多个植入物， 睾丸激素在交配行为途径中的作用 第3章具体目标 研究交配行为回路的稳定性， 类固醇反应亚核的连接。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): 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 1B 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.