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Alison Bell
Animal Biology
University of Illinois
Todays lecture
Hormones
What are they?
Where are they made?
What do they do?
Distinct from:
Neurotransmitters, substances
released by neurons that are
received by adjacent neurons &
alter their membrane potential.
Pheromones, substances
released by an individual as scent
signals for another.
Testosterone
Centrally
Neurohormones are produced within the
brain, but travel to target via bloodstream
e.g. hypothalamus, neurosteroidogenic cells
Hormone regulation:
Important vertebrate pathways
Hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad (HPG)
Hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)
Hormone regulation:
Synthesis and metabolism
Estradiol
Hormones
If a male and female ring dove are
placed in a cage containing a bowl and
nesting material, and kept in simulated
spring, they will initiate the following
sequence:
bow and coo display, where the
male bows and coos to the female
select a nest site, marked by the
female sitting on it
build the nest takes one week
copulate during nest building
female lays eggs, 2 eggs over 2
days
incubate the eggs takes two weeks
the young hatch and the parents feed
the young by producing a crop milk
and regurgitating it for the young
takes two weeks
initiate sequence again
Behavior
Role of progesterone
Lehrman 1964
Important point
Many shared
mechanisms, BUT
mechanisms often
differ between
species/groups
Different selection
pressures result in
modifications of the
hormonal mechanisms
of behavior
Hunt et al 1995
Activational effects
Short-term, reversible effects that occur in the fully
developed organism (e.g. alteration of transmission
in neural networks that respond to certain aspects of
the environment)
Organizational effects
Long-term, irreversible effects on tissue
differentiation and development (e.g. brain, ovary)
that can either directly (brain) or indirectly (ovary)
influence behavior
Activational Effect
Oxytocin and maternal
behavior in mice
Pre-maternal mice fear
pups and will attack them
Oxytocin injections induce
maternal behavior
Organizational Effect
Sexual differentiation via
exposure to steroids during
development
Figure 1. Sexual dimorphisms in the brain.
(a,b) The sexually dimorphic nucleus of the
preoptic area (SDN-POA) is larger in male rats
(a) than in females (b) because the testes
secrete testosterone during the perinatal
sensitive period. After that time, testosterone
has little effect on SDN-POA volume. (c,d) In
contrast, the volume of the rat posterodorsal
medial amygdala (MePD), which is about 1.5
times larger in males (c) than in females (d),
retains its responsiveness to testosterone
throughout life. (e,f) In zebra finches, the
robustus archistriatum (RA) nucleus is crucial for
song production and has a greater volume in
males (e) than in females (f). Like the rat SDNPOA, exposure to steroid hormones early in life
is essential for the RA to develop a masculine
phenotype. For the RA, however, the steroids
may not originate from the testes, but are
rather synthesized locally in the brain itself.
SCN, suprachiasmatic nucleus; 3V, third
ventricle; ot, optic tract. All scale bars = 250
mum. Morris et al 2004
Moore et al 1998
Females mated to
relatively attractive males
deposited more
testosterone in their eggs
compared to females
mated to unattractive
males
The differential allocation hypothesis (Burley 1988)
Costs of T
Aggression
T
Parental behavior
Level of behavior
The challenge
hypothesis
In species where males provide direct
parental care (feed the chicks), males
should increase T only when needed,
e.g. when challenged, but then return T
to level B. In contrast, in species where
males do not provide direct parental care
and spend most of their time defending
the territory, males should have high,
relatively unchanging, levels of T.
Wingfield et al 1990
Ritualized aggression?
Men experience a surge in T after
team/individual wins in sports
World Cup soccer fans show
increased T if their team wins