Sex hormonal control of the rat somatosensory cortex

这项建议的主要目标是确定性激素影响躯体感觉皮质介导的神经元活动、发育和行为的性质和程度。性激素在皮质信息处理中的作用基本上是未知的，因为经典的神经内分泌学研究几乎完全集中在皮质下结构上。然而，人们早就知道，性激素受体存在于前脑中，它们可以对细胞特性产生重大影响，如脊柱翻转。我们自己的工作指出了性激素在大鼠躯体感觉皮质中的主要作用：(I)我们观察到男性和女性对社交触摸的不同反应。(2)初步研究表明，雌性动情周期中快脉冲中间神经元的活动具有一定的差异性。(3)观察了青春期大鼠生殖器体感皮质MAP的主要变化。此外，我们还进行了行为学实验，结果表明，生殖器触摸是推进大鼠雌性青春期的主要社交线索。受这些发现的启发，我们将提出以下四个关于性激素和体感皮质的问题：(1)在具有激素生理学背景的高级博士后的帮助下，我们将问，荷尔蒙驱动的兴奋性变化的细胞基础是什么？(2)青春期体感生殖器皮质的扩张是否受性激素控制？(3)体感生殖器皮质参与青春期触觉的启动/推进吗？(4)皮质激素作用控制社会性行为吗？我们的研究项目是最有前途的，因为课题新颖，提出的问题具有很大的行为学意义，并且应用基于强大的初步发现。

The primary objective of this proposal is to determine the nature and extent to which sex hormones influence neuronal activity, development and behaviors mediated by the somatosensory cortex. The role of sex hormones in cortical information processing is essentially unknown due to the fact that classic neuroendocrinological studies have focused almost entirely on subcortical structures. It has long been known, however, that sex hormone receptors are present in the forebrain and that they can have major impact on cellular properties such as spine turnover. Our own work points to a major role of sex hormones in rat somatosensory cortex: (i) We observed different responses to social touch in males and females. (ii) We obtained preliminary evidence that the activity of fast-spiking interneurons varies female estrus cycle. (iii) We observed major map changes in rat genital somatosensory cortex in puberty. In addition, we conducted behavioral experiments, which showed that genital touch is a dominant social cue advancing female puberty in rats. Inspired by these findings we will pose the following four questions about sex hormones and somatosensory cortex: (1) With the help of an advanced postdoc with a background in hormone-physiology we will ask, what are the cellular underpinnings of hormonally-driven excitability changes? (2) Is the expansion of somatosensory genital cortex during puberty under the control of sex hormones? (3) Is somatosensory genital cortex involved in the tactile initiation/advance of puberty? (4) Does cortical hormonal action control socio-sexual behavior? Our research project is most promising, because the topic is novel, the questions raised are of great behavioral significance and the application based on strong preliminary findings.