26
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      Sexual differentiation of the vertebrate nervous system.

      Nature neuroscience
      Animals, Central Nervous System, anatomy & histology, growth & development, metabolism, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, genetics, Humans, Neural Pathways, cytology, Neuronal Plasticity, Receptors, Androgen, Sex Differentiation, physiology, Testosterone, Vertebrates

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPubMed
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Understanding the mechanisms that give rise to sex differences in the behavior of nonhuman animals may contribute to the understanding of sex differences in humans. In vertebrate model systems, a single factor-the steroid hormone testosterone-accounts for most, and perhaps all, of the known sex differences in neural structure and behavior. Here we review some of the events triggered by testosterone that masculinize the developing and adult nervous system, promote male behaviors and suppress female behaviors. Testosterone often sculpts the developing nervous system by inhibiting or exacerbating cell death and/or by modulating the formation and elimination of synapses. Experience, too, can interact with testosterone to enhance or diminish its effects on the central nervous system. However, more work is needed to uncover the particular cells and specific genes on which testosterone acts to initiate these events.

          Related collections

          Most cited references54

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: not found
          • Article: not found

          Organizing action of prenatally administered testosterone propionate on the tissues mediating mating behavior in the female guinea pig.

            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Evidence for a morphological sex difference within the medial preoptic area of the rat brain.

            The present report demonstrates the existence of a marked sexual difference in the volume of an intensely staining cellular component of the medial preoptic nucleus (MPON) of the rat. Moreover, this sexual dimorphism is shown to be independent of several specific hormonal conditions in the adult, but significantly influenced, perhaps determined, by the perinatal hormone environment. Adult rats were gonadectomized and sacrificed 2 or 5-6 weeks later, or sacrificed after gonadectomy and priming with estradiol benzoate (2 microgram/day x 3) and 500 microgram progesterone, or testosterone propionate (TP, 500 microgram/day x 14), or the ingestion of propylthiouracil (0.15% of the diet) for one month, or following water deprivation for 24 h. These treatments did not affect the sexual dimorphism in the MPON and, in all groups, nuclear volume in the male animals was significantly greater than that of females whether nuclear volume was expressed in absolute terms or relative to brain weight. On the other hand, the volume of the MPON of the adult male castrated neonatally was significantly reduced when compared to that of the male castrated at the time of weaning, i.e. after the period of sexual differentiation of the brain. Consistent with the view that this nuclear region undergoes sexual differentiation is the fact that the volume of the MPON was significantly greater in female rats injected with 1 mg TP on day 4 of life than in oil-treated females. More subtle sex differences in the volume of the suprachiasmatic nucleus were also detected, as were several treatment effects. Although these differences may fall within the error of the analytical procedure, it is possible that hormone- or sex-dependent morphological differences exist elsewhere in the brain. Nevertheless, the gross sexual dimorphism in the MPON clearly demonstrates a possible morphological basis for the sexual differentiation of brain function.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: not found
              • Article: not found

              A difference in hypothalamic structure between heterosexual and homosexual men

              S LeVay (1991)
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Comments

                Comment on this article