Prenatal development, spatial ability, and hippocampus

描述(申请人提供)：产前雄激素组织大脑发育并影响行为性别差异，可能包括空间能力的性别差异。这项研究调查了恒河猴的空间认知，包括雄性、雌性和产前接受睾酮、雄激素拮抗剂或药物治疗的个体。产前的干扰相对较小，通常不会改变生殖器的外观，但会产生一系列行为和神经内分泌影响。因此，这些治疗方法模仿了可能在人类身上自然产生的效果，但仍未被发现。在测试过程中，受试者将导航定位食物，而他们在太空中的位置则通过视频跟踪进行记录。食品的标志性存在和空间一致性将被操纵，以允许对战略使用进行分析。循环荷尔蒙将被监测，以寻找组织和激活荷尔蒙效应之间相互作用的证据。此外，海马体的大小将通过结构磁共振进行测量，海马体是大脑中与空间认知最相关的区域。这项研究是关于孕期睾酮对非人类灵长类动物或人类的海马体大小和空间能力影响的首次实验研究，这些治疗方法的使用应该进一步了解产前激素暴露可能如何影响成人的大脑和认知。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Prenatal androgen organizes brain development and affects behavioral sex differences, perhaps including sex differences in spatial ability. This study investigates spatial cognition in rhesus monkeys, including males, females, and individuals who received testosterone, an androgen antagonist, or vehicle prenatally. The prenatal perturbations are relatively small and most often did not alter genital appearance, but have produced a suite of behavioral and neuroendocrine effects. Thus, the treatments mimic effects that might occur naturally in humans but remain undetected. During testing, subjects will navigate to locate food while their location in space is recorded by video tracking. Landmark presence and the spatial consistency of the food will be manipulated to permit analysis of strategy use. Circulating hormones will be monitored for evidence of an interaction between organizational and activational hormone effects. Also, the size of the hippocampus, the brain area most associated with spatial cognition will be measured with structural MRI. This study is the first experimental investigation of prenatal testosterone effects on hippocampal size and spatial abilities in nonhuman primates or humans, and the use of these treatments should further understanding of how prenatal hormone exposure may affect the adult brain and cognition.