Hormone effects on specific and global brain functions.
The 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.
Lee
A W
AW
Laboratory of Neurobiology and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10021, USA.
Pfaff
D W
DW
D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D004967:Estrogens / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000378:metabolism*; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics; D014697:Ventromedial Hypothalamic Nucleus / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*
D004967:Estrogens; D009638:Norepinephrine