NEUR 3302 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Fetus, Hypothalamus, Sex Steroid
20 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Lecture 2 covered how gonadal hormones masculinize sexual behaviour and the brain very early in development: what hormones are involved in the organization of sexual behaviour. T- levels are linked to an icrease in consummatory sexual behaviour: the most important brain area they act in. Female: ventral medial hypothalamus, male: medial preoptic area. It was a blind experiment , meaning researchers didn"t know which brains they were looking were the male ones and which ones the females. Turns out sdn is bigger in males than females. Also, e had the same effect as t and this suggests it can masculinize the brain ( t via aromatase = e: when these hormones need to be present to effect sexual organization. This is the experiment they took male and female rats, castrated and ovx"d them the first day after their birth, and then they started giving them t on either day 3,4. 5,6,7,8 or 9.
