Expression of male-typical behavior in adult female pseudohermaphroditic rhesus: Comparisons with normal males and neonatally gonadectomized males and females

Pomerantz, Steven M.; Goy, Robert W.; Roy, Madhuchhanda

doi:10.1016/0018-506x(86)90010-3

Cited by 47 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The mount postures females employed, and the manner in which they moved during mounts, were distinctly female-typical. At first glance, our findings that female Japanese macaques do not mount in a male-typical manner would appear to contradict the organizational/activational hypothesis that females who mount have been developmentally masculinized via the prenatal actions of androgens (e.g., Pomerantz et al, 1986). We wish to stress, however, that our results do not provide strong evidence for rejecting this hypothesis.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 68%

“…The organizational/activational hypothesis provides one such alternative theoretical perspective that focuses on elucidating how sex-atypical behaviors develop (Phoenix, Goy, Gerall, & Young, 1959;Pomerantz, Goy, & Roy, 1986). According to this hypothesis, a critical period of susceptibility exists in prenatal or perinatal life during which exposure to androgens and/or their estrogenic metabolites differentially organizes the neural circuitry that underlies the behavior of males and females.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Male–Female and Female–Female Mounting in Japanese Macaques: A Comparative Study of Posture and Movement

et al. 2006

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Mounting is generally considered to be a male-typical behavior. Female Japanese macaques, in certain populations, are unusual, in that they routinely mount other females. In this study, we examined to what extent female Japanese macaques mount same-sex partners in a male-typical manner. We compared the mount postures males and females adopt and their rate of pelvic thrusting. In addition, we employed a modified form of Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) to compare patterns of pelvic movement during mounts. LMA is a universal language for movement that describes quantitative features of movement, such as changes in the relation of the body segments, as well as qualitative features, such as the style of movements. Our results indicate that female Japanese macaques do not mount in a male-typical manner. Females exhibited a much greater variety of mount postures than did males. Some of the most common types of mount postures employed by females were never exhibited by males. Females performed fewer pelvic thrusts per mount than males, but they executed more pelvic movements per mount, as well as, greater variety and complexity of movement. In addition, the qualitative style of pelvic mounting that females employed differed, in general, from that of males. We argue that these sex differences in mounting can be explained by the fact that both sexes sought sexual reward via genital stimulation during mounting, but they did so in different ways owing to the constraints imposed by their genital architecture. This study raises the larger question as to what constitutes a male-typical or female-typical behavior.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 68%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Male–Female and Female–Female Mounting in Japanese Macaques: A Comparative Study of Posture and Movement

et al. 2006

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“…Likewise, the long-term behavioural effects of depriving male primates of oestrogenic stimulation during foetal development have not been explored. Evidence suggests that in male rhesus, as in ferrets and other mammals, the process of coital masculinization extends well into the neonatal period (49). However, other than the demonstration that neonatal castration severely disrupts masculine coital behaviour in male rhesus (49), no studies have been conducted examining the relative abilities of testosterone, DHT, and oestradiol to reverse these adverse effects of early castration on the development of masculine sexual behaviour.…”

Section: Developmental Effects Of Oestrogen and Androgenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Steroidal Control of Behavioural, Neuroendocrine and Brain Sexual Differentiation: Studies in a Carnivore, the Ferret

Baum

Carroll

Cherrv

et al. 1990

J Neuroendocrinology

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More than 30 years have passed since the publication ( I ) showing that transplacental administration of testosterone to female guinea-pigs caused permanent changes in their ability to exhibit reproductive behaviours in response to ovarian steroids in adulthood. Over the intervening years articles have appeared which have extended this type of observation to numerous other mammalian species, including rat, hamster, gerbil, mouse, dog, ferret, pig, sheep, rhesus monkey, and marmoset (2, 3). In many instances inferences have been made about the probable existence of steroid-induced changes in the structure and function of the nervous system which underlie these changes in behaviour. These so-called 'organizational' effects of perinatal steroid exposure on the developing nervous system are often distinguished from the later 'activational' effects of these same steroids on the expression of sociosexual behaviours in adulthood. The number of different mammalian species used for mechanistic studies on the organizational effects of steroids, such as determining the precise perinatal timing of hormone action, the identity of the steroid(s) responsible for behavioural sexual differentiation, and the neural sites of steroid action, has been relatively small, and generally restricted to rodents. In the late 1970's sex steroids acting during development were first implicated in the differentiation of sexually dimorphic telencephalic structures in passerine song birds which control singing associated with courtship (4, 5). Since this early work, numerous studies have exploited the canary and zebra finch to explore mechanisms of steroid action in controlling the ontogeny of song in the male and the underlying changes in the nervous system. Other studies using the rat have explored in detail the role of androgen and oestrogen in controlling the differentiation in males of patterns of reproductive behaviour (2) as well as aspects of neural sex dimorphisms in the preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus (POA/AH) (6) and in the lumbar spinal cord (7). The concentration of mechanistic (behavioural, biochemical, neuroanatomical) studies of steroidal effects on sexually dimorphic behavioural potential in a few avian and rodent species is understandable, in light of their relative availability, low expense, and rapid time-course of neural development.Despite the substantial progress already made using these lower vertebrate models in promoting our understanding of how sex steroids influence neural and behavioural development, extrapolation of the results obtained in these studies to higher mammals including man cannot occur in the absence of some degree of empirical verification. Obviously, experimental manipulations of steroidal exposure during the development of human subjects would be unethical, thus we are left with experiments of nature (e.g. congenital adreno-genital syndrome,androgen insensitivity syndrome, and Sa-reductase deficient pseudohermaphroditism; details in later sections) with which to ask questions about the role of sex...

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“…This argument is usually presented within the framework of the organizational/activational hypothesis (Phoenix, Goy, Gerall, & Young, 1959;Pomerantz, Goy, & Roy, 1986), which holds that prenatal or perinatal exposure to sex-atypical levels of androgens, and/or their estrogenic metabolites, masculinizes brain organization and, in turn, the propensity to express male-typical sexual behaviors such as mounting (Baum, 1979). Research on females in our study population suggests that their sexual activity is characterized by a mosaic pattern of male-typical and female-typical behaviors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Sexual Reward via Vulvar, Perineal, and Anal Stimulation: A Proximate Mechanism for Female Homosexual Mounting in Japanese Macaques

Vasey

Duckworth

2006

Arch Sex Behav

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Female Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), in certain captive and free-ranging populations, frequently engage in same-sex mounting. Traditionally, same-sex mounting interactions in animals have been characterized as "sociosexual," that is, sexual in terms of their superficial form, but enacted to facilitate adaptive social goals. Sexual motivation is rarely ascribed to sociosexual interactions because their adaptive functions are often seen as their primary purpose, thus diminishing, or even negating, any sexual component that such activity might have. A substantial number of studies indicate that female-female mounting in Japanese macaques is not a sociosexual behavior. In contrast, several lines of circumstantial evidence suggest that these interactions are, indeed, sexual. In this study, we documented patterns of vulvar, perineal, and anal (VPA) stimulation during same-sex mounting in female Japanese macaques. During the majority of female-female mounts analyzed, female mounters engaged in repetitive VPA stimulation. Two forms of VPA manipulation by female mounters were observed. First, while sitting in a jockey-style position on the mountee, a female mounter would rub her VPA region against the mountee's back. Males never executed this type of mount posture or pelvic movement. Second, female mounters rubbed their VPA regions with their tails during same-sex mounts. Females mounters moved their tails in a voluntary, sex-specific manner and were never observed to do so in non-sexual contexts. Given the primary role of the VPA regions in mediating sexual response in primates, the results of this research provide direct evidence bearing on the sexual nature of female-female mounting in Japanese macaques and give further support for the conclusion that the term "homosexual behavior" is an appropriate label for these interactions.

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Expression of male-typical behavior in adult female pseudohermaphroditic rhesus: Comparisons with normal males and neonatally gonadectomized males and females

Cited by 47 publications

References 17 publications

Male–Female and Female–Female Mounting in Japanese Macaques: A Comparative Study of Posture and Movement

Male–Female and Female–Female Mounting in Japanese Macaques: A Comparative Study of Posture and Movement

Steroidal Control of Behavioural, Neuroendocrine and Brain Sexual Differentiation: Studies in a Carnivore, the Ferret

Sexual Reward via Vulvar, Perineal, and Anal Stimulation: A Proximate Mechanism for Female Homosexual Mounting in Japanese Macaques

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