Title: Hormonal determinants during infancy of adult sexual behavior in the female rat
Abstract: One injection of varying doses of testosterone propionate into female rats at 120 hr after birth resulted in facilitation of the lordosis response for low dose groups (5–50 μg) and suppression of lordosis for high dose groups (100–1000 μg) in adulthood. These same results were found after castration followed by replacement injections of estrogen and progesterone. Subsequent injections of testosterone did not increase mounting or intromission behavior in comparison to normal, castrated controls. One injection of varying doses of estradiol benzoate (10–500 μg) into other female rats at 96 hr after birth resulted in suppression of lordosis in adulthood for all groups, both before castration and after replacement injections, and again an inverse relationship between amount of hormone given in infancy and capacity to exhibit lordosis was found. Subsequent injections of testosterone in adulthood did elicit more mounting behavior than observed in controls, and several animals exhibited behavioral ejaculation patterns. These results indicate that the presence of hormones in infancy does program the central nervous system for adult sexual behavior, but the hormone present early in life does not necessarily produce the patterns of sexual behavior which that hormone normally activates in the adult organism.
Publication Year: 1968
Publication Date: 1968-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 38
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