Sexual dimorphism in neural structure and function

像身体的其他部分一样，由于性激素的作用，神经系统呈现出男性或女性的形态和功能。探索这些差异有助于我们了解神经系统是如何运作、专门化和自我重塑的。为了研究激素、神经系统和行为之间的相互关系，我们问了三个基本问题：(1)性激素如何作用于神经系统结构，使其呈现男性或女性形态？我们专注于几个模型系统来解决这个问题，特别是球海绵体脊核(SNB)，以及脑干和小脑的部分，我们之前已经将它们与男性性行为和性激素睾丸素对神经细胞的作用联系在一起。特别是，我们将侧重于雄激素受体在建立男性典型的尾侧延髓腹侧生殖行为系统中的作用，以及增塑剂双酚A在破坏这一系统中的作用。(2)像睾丸激素这样的雄激素如何改变实验室动物和人类的行为？在这里，我们将研究双酚A对雄性和雌性大鼠从空间认知到交配的各种行为的影响，这些行为通常是不同的。我们还在研究雄激素在超声波发声中的作用，超声波发声是大鼠的一个重要的社会信号。(3)颠倒这种关系，行为和社交暗示如何改变性激素？主要转向人类，我们感兴趣的是生态上重要的环境线索--如优势竞争、关系或生殖机会--如何引发男性和女性睾丸素释放的变化。据推测，这种机制是一种古老的适应机制，它协调生理和神经机制与环境机会。最后，我们一直在研究怀孕对认知的影响，因为怀孕是一种涉及性激素大幅波动的自然实验。在发现胎儿性别对母亲认知的惊人影响后，我们现在正在研究胎儿影响母亲认知能力的可能机制，可能是通过被称为促黄体素的未被研究的荷尔蒙的作用。

Like the rest of the body, the nervous system takes on a male or female form and function due to the actions of sex hormones. Exploring these differences helps us learn about how the nervous system functions, specializes and remodels itself. To study the reciprocal relationships between hormones, the nervous system, and behaviour, we ask three basic questions: (1) How do sex hormones act on neural structures to cause them to take on male or female form? We are focusing on several model systems to address this question, especially the Spinal Nucleus of the Bulbocavernosus (SNB), and parts of the brainstem and cerebellum, that we have previously linked to masculine sexual behaviour and the actions of the sex hormone testosterone on nerve cells. In particular, we will be focusing on the role of androgen receptors in establishing a male-typical caudal ventral medulla system for reproductive behaviour, and on the effects of the plasticizer Bisphenol A in disrupting this system. (2) How do androgens like testosterone change the behavior of lab animals and humans? Here, we will examine the effects of Bisphenol A on a variety of behaviours that are normally different between male and female rats, ranging from spatial cognition to mating. We are also studying the role of androgens in the ultrasonic vocalizations that are an important social signal in rats. (3) Reversing the relationship, how do behaviours and social cues alter sex hormones? Turning mostly to humans, we are interested in how ecologically-important environmental cues - like dominance competitions, relationships, or reproductive opportunities - provoke a change in testosterone release in men and women. Presumably, this mechanism is an ancient adaptation that coordinates physiology and neural mechanisms with environmental opportunities. And lastly, we have been studying the effects of pregnancy on cognition, as pregnancy is a sort of natural experiment involving large fluctuations in sex hormones. Having found a surprising fetal-sex effect on maternal cognition, we are now investigating possible mechanisms by which fetuses affect their mothers' cognitive abilities, possibly through the actions of understudied hormones called lutropins.