Effects of gonadal hormones during puberty on behavior

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的主要目的是了解性腺类固醇激素如何影响雄性仓鼠青春期的神经系统和行为。虽然青春期睾酮(T)的上升通常与男性生殖行为的激活有关，但这些T分泌也会组织（即永久改变）发育中的神经回路，以增强成年期对T的激活反应。实验1将检验青春期是T对男性生殖行为的组织行为的敏感期这一假设。特异性目的2将确定青春期T是否通过改变内侧视前区多巴胺能对女性感官刺激的反应来组织男性生殖行为。这些研究对诸如合成代谢类固醇滥用、饮食失调和疾病等人类状况具有启示意义，所有这些都将大脑暴露于类固醇激素的窗口期移出了正常的青春期。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The primary aim of this research is to understand how gonadal steroid hormones shape the nervous system and behavior during puberty in male hamsters. While the pubertal rise in testosterone (T) is often associated with the activation of male reproductive behavior, these T secretions also organize (i.e., permanently alter) developing neural circuits to enhance activational responses to T in adulthood. Exp. 1 will test the hypothesis that puberty is a sensitive period for organizational actions of T on masculine reproductive behavior. Specific Aim 2 will determine whether T during puberty organizes masculine reproductive behavior by altering medial preoptic area dopaminergic responses to female sensory stimuli. These studies have implications for human conditions such as anabolic steroid abuse, eating disorders, and disease, all of which shift the window of brain exposure to steroid hormones outside of the normal time of puberty.