| Title: | Bilateral damage to the sexually dimorphic medial preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus of male ferrets causes a female-typical preference for and a hypothalamic Fos response to male body odors |
| Author(s): | Alekseyenko OV; Waters P; Zhou H; Baum MJ; |
| Address: | "Department of Biology, 5 Cummington St., Boston, MA 02215, USA" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.physbeh.2006.10.005 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0031-9384 (Print) 0031-9384 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Previous studies showed that bilateral lesions of the male ferret's preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus (POA/AH), centered in the sexually dimorphic nuclei present in this region, caused subjects to seek out a same-sex male, as opposed to a female conspecific. Male subjects with POA/AH lesions (which were also castrated and given estradiol) displayed female-typical receptive behavior in response to neck gripping by a stimulus male, implying that subjects' approaches to a same-sex conspecific were sexually motivated. We asked whether the effect of POA/AH lesions on males' partner preference reflects a shift in the central processing of body odorant cues so that males come to display a female-typical preference to approach male body odorants. Sexually experienced male ferrets in which electrolytic lesions of the POA/AH caused bilateral damage to the sexually dimorphic male nucleus (MN) resembled sham-operated females by preferring to approach body odors emitted from anesthetized male as opposed to female stimulus ferrets confined in the goal boxes of a Y-maze. This lesion-induced shift in odor preference was correlated with a significant increase in the ability of soiled male bedding to induce a Fos response in the medial POA of males with bilateral damage to the MN-POA/AH. No such partner preference or neural Fos responses were seen in sham-operated males or in other groups of males with POA/AH lesions that either caused unilateral damage or no damage to the MN-POA/AH. Male-typical hypothalamic processing of conspecifics' body odorants may determine males' normal preference to seek out odors emitted by female conspecifics, leading to mating and successful reproduction" |
| Keywords: | "Analysis of Variance Animals Female Ferrets/*physiology Hypothalamus, Anterior/metabolism/*physiology Male Mating Preference, Animal/*physiology Pheromones/physiology Preoptic Area/metabolism/physiology Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos/metabolism *Sex Charac;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineAlekseyenko, Olga V Waters, Patricia Zhou, Huiquan Baum, Michael J eng R01 HD021094/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ R01 HD021094-18/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ HD 21094/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural 2006/11/23 Physiol Behav. 2007 Feb 28; 90(2-3):438-49. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2006.10.005. Epub 2006 Nov 21" |
