RUI: Hormonal Influences on Behavioral Development

9222763莱文这个项目的目的是通过研究鸟类的鸣叫来调查社会行为中性别差异的根源。鸟类研究集中在只有雄性歌唱的物种上，发现了雄性大脑中控制歌唱行为的特定区域，并表明这些区域是由睾丸素开启和关闭的。这些物种中不会唱歌的雌性没有这些发育良好的大脑区域，血液中也缺乏显著水平的睾丸素。莱文博士将通过观察一种热带物种来扩大对行为性别差异起源的理解，在热带物种中，两性都在唱歌，而在热带物种中，性别差异在歌曲中保持。她计划饲养幼鸟，只听一只雄鸟的歌声，只听雌鸟的歌声，或者不听雌鸟的歌声。研究这些鸟学会唱歌的内容以及它们在歌曲学习过程中荷尔蒙水平是如何变化的，这将有助于揭示荷尔蒙和社会榜样在歌曲性别差异发展中所扮演的角色。她将通过检查接受手术去势的鸟类的歌唱发育来测试荷尔蒙在歌唱发育中的任何暗示作用。虽然性别行为差异的起源问题，特别是在人类中，是一个非常感兴趣的话题，但很难以严格、系统的方式解决这个问题。对鸟类物种的研究提供了一个独特的机会，因为鸟类的神经系统非常容易研究，而且由于雄性和雌性在相对角色上存在巨大的物种差异，一个物种内性别物种行为的群体差异，以及鸟类之间可以发现的群体内的个体差异。鸟类系统已经成功地用于在其他感兴趣的领域建立和测试所提出的模型，例如激素、攻击性和社会环境的相互关系，这些研究的结果被证明与灵长类和其他脊椎动物的研究结果非常相似。因此，似乎只要谨慎地选择合适的物种，我们就可以利用鸟类系统来揭示可能与脊椎动物行为中的性别分化过程有关的机制。

9222763 Levin The purpose of this project is to investigate the origin of sex differences in social behavior by examining bird song. Bird studies have focused on species in which only males sing, have identified specific areas in male brains that control song behavior, and have shown that these areas are turned on and off by testosterone. Non-singing females of these species don't have these well-developed brain regions and lack significant levels of testosterone in their blood. Dr. Levin will expand this understanding of the origin of sex differences in behavior by looking at a tropical species in which both sexes sing, in which sex differences are maintained in songs. She plans to raise young birds hearing only one male song, only female song, the song of both sexes, or no song. Examining what these birds learn to sing and how their hormone levels change during song learning will help reveal the roles played by hormones and social role models in the development of sex differences in song. She will test any suggested role of hormones in song development by examining song development in surgically castrated birds. While the issue of the origin of sex differences in behavior, particularly in humans, is a topic of much interest, it is difficult to address in a rigorous, systematic fashion. Studies of bird species offer a unique opportunity to do so because the avian nervous system is so amenable to study and because of the vast array of species differences in the relative roles played by males and females, population differences in sex-species behaviors within one species, and individual differences within a population that can be found among birds. Avian systems have been successfully used to generate and test proposed models in other areas of interest, such as the inter-relationships of hormones, aggression, and social environment, and the results of these studies have proven to be remarkably parallel to those from studies of primates and other ve rtebrates. Thus, it seems likely that simply by prudently choosing appropriate species, we can exploit avian systems to reveal the mechanisms that might be associated with the process of sexual differentiation in the behavior of vertebrates.