Effects of gonadal hormones during puberty on behavior

描述(申请人提供)：这项研究的主要目的是了解性腺类固醇激素如何塑造青春期雄性仓鼠的神经系统和行为。虽然青春期睾酮(T)的升高通常与男性生殖行为的激活有关，但这些T分泌也组织(即永久改变)发育中的神经回路，以增强成年后对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动的敏感期的假设。具体目标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觉刺激的反应来组织男性生殖行为。这些研究对人类状况有影响，如合成类固醇滥用、饮食失调和疾病，所有这些都使大脑接触类固醇激素的时间窗口超出了青春期的正常时间。

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.