Prenatal development, spatial ability, and hippocampus

描述（由申请人提供）：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。本研究调查了恒河猴的空间认知能力，包括雄性、雌性和产前接受睾酮、雄激素拮抗剂或载体的个体。产前干扰相对较小，大多数情况下不会改变生殖器外观，但会产生一系列行为和神经内分泌影响。因此，这些治疗方法模拟了可能在人类身上自然发生但未被发现的效果。在测试过程中，受试者将导航定位食物，同时他们在空间中的位置将被视频跟踪记录下来。地标的存在和食物的空间一致性将被操纵，以允许分析策略的使用。将监测循环激素，以寻找组织和激活激素效应之间相互作用的证据。此外，海马体（与空间认知最相关的大脑区域）的大小将通过结构MRI测量。这项研究是首次对产前睾酮对非人类灵长类动物或人类海马大小和空间能力影响的实验研究，这些治疗方法的使用将进一步了解产前激素暴露如何影响成人大脑和认知。

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.