Behavioral Neurobiology of Stress Hormones

在一些两栖动物物种中，雄性对雌性的求偶行为会因应激环境刺激而分泌类固醇皮质酮而迅速受到抑制。本项目将研究应激相关类固醇激素对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允许人们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，另一种是在几小时内发生的缓慢作用。对动物行为和脑细胞电信号的研究将有助于确定几种应激类固醇激素对控制求偶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可能存在于不同种类的动物中。这些发现将有助于解释环境压力源如何作用于神经系统，从而损害自然种群动物的繁殖，并将为理解应激类固醇作用于人类大脑功能的可能模式提供一个框架。

IBN-94-21175 Frank Moore 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.