PSYC 342 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Luteal Phase, Follicular Phase, Endocrine System
Document Summary
Lecture 21 - reproductive hormones and behaviours in women part ii. Important discourse is present in the literature when we look at women"s hormonal variations and their effect on behaviours/health. The book"s purpose is to help women and try to understand certain aspects of their body and lives, but the way the title is framed is deterministic and discouraging for women. Relationship between womens" menstrual cycle phase/ovarian hormone variations and psychostimulant drugs/addictive behaviours associated with psychostimulant drugs. In rodents, estrogens are associated with increased addictive behaviours, while progesterone is associated with decreased addictive behaviours. Estrogens act a bit like a dopaminergic agonist, increasing dopamine release in nucleus accumbens (nac; a reward-related region of the brain) and thereby increasing the rewarding effects. Works by reducing inhibitory input from previous regions (mpoa) on dopamine release in the nac. Inversely, progesterone & the progesterone metabolite allopregnanolone is associated with an increased gabaergic response and thereby decreasing the rewarding effects.