Mate Selection, Sexual Orientation, and Pair Bonding

Balthazart, Jacques; Young, Larry J.

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-397175-3.00048-x

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 382 publications

(343 reference statements)

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“…It is well established that, in mammals, these different features of an individual are mediated by multisensory inputs and include visual, acoustic but also olfactory signals (see Balthazart and Young, 2014 for review). As already stated before, it was long believed that birds almost exclusively rely on visual and acoustic signals in their social life, so that olfactory input was either negligible or completely absent in reproductive contexts.…”

Section: Why Is Chemical Communication Important In Avian Reproducmentioning

confidence: 99%

The perfume of reproduction in birds: Chemosignaling in avian social life

Samuel

Balthazart²,

Bonadonna

2015

Hormones and Behavior

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102

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Chemical cues were probably the first cues ever used to communicate and are still ubiquitous among living organisms. Birds have long been considered an exception: it was believed that birds were anosmic and relied on their acute visual and acoustic capabilities. Birds are however excellent smellers and use odors in various contexts including food searching, orientation, but also breeding. Successful reproduction in most vertebrates involves the exchange of complex social signals between partners. The first evidence for a role of olfaction in reproductive contexts in birds only dates back to the seventies, when ducks were shown to require a functional sense of smell to express normal sexual behaviors. Nowadays, even if the interest for olfaction in birds has largely increased, the role that bodily odors play in reproduction still remains largely understudied. The few available studies however suggest that olfaction is involved in many reproductive stages. Odors have been shown to influence the choice and synchronization of partners, the choice of nest-building material or the care for the eggs and offspring. How this chemical information is translated at the physiological level mostly remain to be described, although available evidence suggests that, as in mammals, key reproductive brain areas like the medial preoptic nucleus are activated by relevant olfactory signals. Olfaction in birds receives increasing attention and novel findings are continuously published, but many exciting discoveries are still ahead of us, and could make birds one of the animal classes with the largest panel of developed senses ever described.

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Section: Why Is Chemical Communication Important In Avian Reproducmentioning

confidence: 99%

The perfume of reproduction in birds: Chemosignaling in avian social life

Samuel

Balthazart²,

Bonadonna

2015

Hormones and Behavior

Self Cite

102

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“…These include the arginine-vasopressin (AVP) receptor 2. In light of the prominent role played by AVP in the control of social and affiliative relationships (Balthazart & Young, 2014), it is conceivable that any change in this gene could have an impact on sexual orientation, even though expression of this gene is most prominent in the kidney and more limited in the brain. Another gene located in Xq28 and expressed in the brain is the cyclic nucleotide gated channel alpha 2 (CNGA2) that is critical in mice for the control of odor-evoked sociosexual behaviors (Mandiyan, Coats, & Shah, 2005; Spehr et al, 2006).…”

Section: Why Are the Results Different For Males?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Sexual Orientation: The Importance of Evidentiary Convergence

Balthazart

Court

2017

Arch Sex Behav

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“…Despite these limitations, two clinical conditions are presented briefly that lend some support for the organisational theory. More comprehensive presentations of the clinical evidence on this topic can be found in several excellent reviews …”

Section: Sexual Orientationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurobiology of gender identity and sexual orientation

Roselli

2018

J Neuroendocrinology

100

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Sexual identity and sexual orientation are independent components of a person's sexual identity. These dimensions are most often in harmony with each other and with an individual's genital sex, but not always. This review discusses the relationship of sexual identity and sexual orientation to prenatal factors that act to shape the development of the brain and the expression of sexual behaviors in animals and humans. One major influence discussed relates to organizational effects that the early hormone environment exerts on both gender identity and sexual orientation. Evidence that gender identity and sexual orientation are masculinized by prenatal exposure to testosterone and feminized in it absence is drawn from basic research in animals, correlations of biometric indices of androgen exposure and studies of clinical conditions associated with disorders in sexual development. There are, however, important exceptions to this theory that have yet to be resolved.Family and twin studies indicate that genes play a role, but no specific candidate genes have been identified. Evidence that relates to the number of older brothers implicates maternal immune responses as a contributing factor for male sexual orientation. It remains speculative how these influences might relate to each other and interact with postnatal socialization. Nonetheless, despite the many challenges to research in this area, existing empirical evidence makes it clear that there is a significant biological contribution to the development of an individual's sexual identity and sexual orientation.

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Mate Selection, Sexual Orientation, and Pair Bonding

Cited by 10 publications

References 382 publications

The perfume of reproduction in birds: Chemosignaling in avian social life

The perfume of reproduction in birds: Chemosignaling in avian social life

Human Sexual Orientation: The Importance of Evidentiary Convergence

Neurobiology of gender identity and sexual orientation

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