Hormone Effects on Specific and Global Brain Functions
J Physiol Sci Vol.58, No.4 pp.213-220
Abstract: he first demonstration of how biochemical changes in neurons in specific parts of the brain direct a complete mammalian behavior derived from the effects of estrogens in hypothalamic neurons that facilitate lordosis behavior, the primary reproductive behavior of female quadrupeds (Pfaff. Estrogens and Brain Function. 1980; Pfaff. Drive: Neurobiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Sexual Motivation. 1999). Sex behaviors depend on sexual arousal that in turn depends on a primitive function: generalized CNS arousal (Pfaff. Brain Arousal and Information Theory. 2006). Here we summarize one of the ways in which a generalized arousal transmitter, norepinephrine, can influence the electrical excitability of ventromedial hypothalamic cells in a way that will foster female sex behavior.
Laboratory of Neurobiology and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10021,USA pfaff@rockefeller.edu
Copyright© 2007 by The Physiological Society of Japan