Behavioral Neurobiology of Stress Hormones

IBN-9410284詹姆斯·罗斯在一些两栖动物物种中，雄性对雌性的求爱很快被应激环境刺激时分泌的类固醇皮质酮所抑制。这个项目将研究与压力相关的类固醇激素对大脑功能和行为的作用。这一物种具有独特的研究价值，因为它对压力敏感的繁殖行为使人们能够研究应激类固醇对大脑功能的两种不同作用：一种是在几分钟内出现的快速作用，另一种是在几个小时内发生的缓慢发展的作用。对动物行为和脑细胞电信号的研究将有助于确定几种类型的应激类固醇激素对控制求爱行为的脑细胞的快速和缓慢影响。这些研究的结果具有普遍意义，因为应激类固醇对大脑的快速和缓慢影响很可能存在于不同物种的动物中。这些发现应该有助于解释环境应激源如何作用于神经系统以损害自然动物种群的生殖，并将为理解应激类固醇对人类大脑功能的可能作用模式提供一个框架。

IBN-9410284 James Rose In some amphibian species male courtship of females is rapidly suppressed by secretion of the steroid corticosterone in response to stressful environmental stimuli. This project will investigate the actions of stress-related steroid hormones on brain function and behavior. This species is uniquely valuable for study because its stress-sensitive reproductive behavior allows one to investigate two different actions of stress steroids on brain function: a rapid action that appears in a matter of minutes and a slowly-developing action that occurs across a period of hours. Studies of the behavior of the animal and of the electrical signals of the brain cells will help to identify the rapid and slow effects of several types of stress steroid hormones on the brain cells that control courtship behavior. The results of these studies have general significance because both rapid and slow brain effects of stress steroids are likely to be present in diverse species of animals. The findings should help to explain how environmental stressors act on the nervous system to impair reproduction in natural populations of animals and will provide a framework for understanding possible modes of stress steroid action on brain function in humans.