Hormone Effects on Specific and Global Brain Functions

Lee, A.W.; Pfaff, Donald W.

doi:10.2170/physiolsci.rv007008

Cited by 37 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 102 publications

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“…In higher organisms, gonadal hormones are known to exert organizational effects on brain circuits (48). The sex determination of both behavioral and somatic features has been attributed to sexually dimorphic nervous system circuits, such as the vomeronasal system for male or female behaviors (40), the sexually dimorphic nucleus in the rodent hypothalamus for control of gamete release and body growth at sexual maturation (40,49), and the spinal nucleus of the bulbocavernosus, which innervates the striated muscles mediating reflex erectile function (50).…”

Section: Gh Cells In An Intact Network Show Sex-specific Organized Pamentioning

confidence: 99%

Pituitary growth hormone network responses are sexually dimorphic and regulated by gonadal steroids in adulthood

Sánchez-Cárdenas

Fontanaud

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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There are well-recognized sex differences in many pituitary endocrine axes, usually thought to be generated by gonadal steroid imprinting of the neuroendocrine hypothalamus. However, the recognition that growth hormone (GH) cells are arranged in functionally organized networks raises the possibility that the responses of the network are different in males and females. We studied this by directly monitoring the calcium responses to an identical GH-releasing hormone (GHRH) stimulus in populations of individual GH cells in slices taken from male and female murine GH-eGFP pituitary glands. We found that the GH cell network responses are sexually dimorphic, with a higher proportion of responding cells in males than in females, correlated with greater GH release from male slices. Repetitive waves of calcium spiking activity were triggered by GHRH in some males, but were never observed in females. This was not due to a permanent difference in the network architecture between male and female mice; rather, the sex difference in the proportions of GH cells responding to GHRH were switched by postpubertal gonadectomy and reversed with hormone replacements, suggesting that the network responses are dynamically regulated in adulthood by gonadal steroids. Thus, the pituitary gland contributes to the sexually dimorphic patterns of GH secretion that play an important role in differences in growth and metabolism between the sexes. sex hormones | body growth | calcium signaling | systems biology I n most species, males and females display a marked phenotypic divergence in body size, with increased growth rate and body mass being a predominantly masculine trait. Furthermore, in all species examined to date, the growth hormone (GH) axis demonstrates sex-specific differences in hormone contents, secretory outputs, and secretory patterns (1) and their effects on gene expression (2-4). The secretion of GH is controlled by hypothalamic GH-releasing hormone (GHRH) and somatostatin, and there is good evidence for sex-specific imprinting on hypothalamic hypophysiotropic neurons exerted by gonadal steroid exposure early in life (5), with ongoing effects during puberty (6). This has led to the conclusion that the sexually dimorphic control of GH patterns reflects sex differences in GHRH and somatostatin inputs to the pituitary gland. Acute changes in gonadal steroid environment drastically alter the patterns of GH pulsatility in adulthood (7,8); however, although they receive sexually dimorphic inputs (9, 10), GHRH neurons do not display sex-specific electrical characteristics (9, 11). We have previously shown that GH cells in the male mouse pituitary gland form an extensive homotypic cell network with an architecture that exhibits marked plasticity during sexual maturation and that can be altered by gonadectomy (12). Thus, it was important to determine whether male and female pituitary glands would show different responses to the same stimulus in the absence of any hypothalamic influence. To explore this, we assessed the functional activit...

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Section: Gh Cells In An Intact Network Show Sex-specific Organized Pamentioning

confidence: 99%

Pituitary growth hormone network responses are sexually dimorphic and regulated by gonadal steroids in adulthood

Sánchez-Cárdenas

Fontanaud

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Estrogens are among the most studied steroid hormones and have consistently been shown to affect a broad range of physiologic functions, including reproductive, developmental, cardiovascular, and neuronal function (McEwen and Alves, 1999;Nilsson et al, 2001;Lee and Pfaff, 2008;Brinton, 2009;Levin, 2011). Over recent years, there ABBREVIATIONS: AMPA, a-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid; BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor; CNS, central nervous system; CREB, cAMP -esponse element binding; DHEA, dehydroepiandrosterone; DHEAS, sulfated form of DHEA; DPN, diarylpropionitrile; ER, estrogen receptor; ERK, extracellular signal-regulated kinase; GABA, g-aminobutyric acid; GAP, GTPase-activating proteins; GEF, guanine nucleotide exchange factors; GPCR, G-protein-coupled receptor; KO, knockout; LTD, long-term depression; LTP, longterm potentiation; MAPK, mitogen-activated protein kinase; mEPSC, miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents; MNAR, modulator of nongenomic actions of estrogen receptor; NCM, caudomedial nidopallium; NMDA, N-methyl-D-aspartic acid; OVX, ovariectomized; PAK, p21-activated kinases; PELP, proline-, glutamic acid-, and leucine-rich protein; PI3K, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase; PKA, protein kinase A; PKC, protein kinase C; p-LIMK, LIM-kinase; PPT, propyl pyrazole triol; PSD, postsynaptic density protein; rACC, rostral anterior cingulate cortex; RNAi, RNA interface; SERM, synthetic estrogen receptor modulators; StAR, steroidogenic acute regulatory protein; TSWP, two-step wiring plasticity; WASP, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein; WAVE, WASP-family verprolin-homologous protein.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights into Rapid Modulation of Neuroplasticity by Brain Estrogens

Srivastava

Woolfrey

Penzes³

2013

Pharmacol Rev

118

134

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“…activity-driven plasticity | singing motivation | preoptic area S teroid hormones such as testosterone (T) can have multiple effects on physiology, morphology, and behavior (1)(2)(3)(4). These pleiotropic effects of steroids allow coordinating suites of traits into an organized functional response (5,6).…”

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confidence: 99%

Differential effects of global versus local testosterone on singing behavior and its underlying neural substrate

Alward

Balthazart

Ball

2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

117

144

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Steroid hormones regulate multiple but distinct aspects of social behaviors. Testosterone (T) has multiple effects on learned courtship song in that it regulates both the motivation to sing in a particular social context as well as the quality of song produced. The neural substrate(s) where T acts to regulate the motivation to sing as opposed to other aspects of song has not been definitively characterized. We show here that T implants in the medial preoptic nucleus (POM) of castrated male canaries (Serinus canaria) increase song rate but do not enhance acoustic features such as song stereotypy compared with birds receiving peripheral T that can act globally throughout the brain. Strikingly, T action in the POM increased song control nuclei volume, consistent with the hypothesis that singing activity induces neuroplasticity in the song control system independent of T acting in these nuclei. When presented with a female canary, POM-T birds copulated at a rate comparable to birds receiving systemic T but produced fewer calls and songs in her presence. Thus, POM is a key site where T acts to activate copulation and increase song rate, an appetitive sexual behavior in songbirds, but T action in other areas of the brain or periphery (e.g., HVC, dopaminergic cell groups, or the syrinx) is required to enhance the quality of song (i.e., stereotypy) as well as regulate context-specific vocalizations. These results have broad implications for research concerning how steroids act at multiple brain loci to regulate distinct sociosexual behaviors and the associated neuroplasticity.activity-driven plasticity | singing motivation | preoptic area S teroid hormones such as testosterone (T) can have multiple effects on physiology, morphology, and behavior (1-4). These pleiotropic effects of steroids allow coordinating suites of traits into an organized functional response (5, 6). In the case of the regulation of behavior, both motivational and performance aspects of behavior as well cognitive components are often activated by the same hormone (2, 7). The neural sites of steroid action coordinating these distinct aspects of an integrated behavioral response have not been well characterized. In this study, we investigated the site of hormone action in relation to the activation of different aspects of birdsong to illustrate how such an integrated regulation can occur.Birdsong is a species-typical, stereotypic set of usually long, learned, complex vocalizations produced in reproductive contexts (8). A discrete network of interconnected brain nuclei orchestrates song learning and production (from here on called the song control system or SCS) (3, 9-11). Areas such as HVC (acronym is proper name) and the robust nucleus of the arcopallium (RA) regulate the production of song, whereas areas such as Area X and LMAN are involved in song learning. These forebrain nuclei can undergo remarkable plasticity in response to seasonally changing T (12, 13; see refs. 2 and 14 for review). There is also evidence that other factors such as singing ac...

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Hormone Effects on Specific and Global Brain Functions

Cited by 37 publications

References 102 publications

Pituitary growth hormone network responses are sexually dimorphic and regulated by gonadal steroids in adulthood

Pituitary growth hormone network responses are sexually dimorphic and regulated by gonadal steroids in adulthood

Insights into Rapid Modulation of Neuroplasticity by Brain Estrogens

Differential effects of global versus local testosterone on singing behavior and its underlying neural substrate

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