HORMONAL INFLUENCES ON MOTIVATIONAL SYSTEMS
OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN MUROID RODENTS
AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE FOR REPRODUCTIVE STATES

1980 unpublished

DAVID B. ADAMS
Department of Psychology
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn.

SHORT ABSTRACT

The effects of hormones upon the social behavior of muroid rodents are reviewed and analyzed as effects upon fifteen specific sites in the nervous system. These sites include motivational mechanisms for offense, exploration/marking, female sex, male sex, parental behavior and a consociate modulator that switches the animal from defense to submission. Other sites include sensory filters for motivating and releasing stimuli, motor patterning mechanisms of scent-marking and the male sexual reflexes, and motor patterning mechanisms for secretion of hormone releasing factors. The various hormone effects initiate and maintain a few discrete reproductive states that organize a consistent and effective strategy of social behavior.

LONG ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION.

I.. SITES OF HORMONAL ACTION

A. Motivational Mechanisms

Figure 1: Sites of hormonal action

1. An offense motivational mechanism; inhibited by estrogen/progestin and by ACTH and facilitated by prolactin.

2. An exploration/marking motivational mechanism; activated by androgen and estrogen.

3. A female sex motivational mechanism; suppressed perinatally by androgen and activated in adulthood by estrogen, progestin, and luteinizing hormone-releasing factor. .

4. A male sex motivational mechanism; organized perinatally by androgen and activated in adulthood by androgen

5. A parental motivational mechanism; suppressed perinatally by androgen, activated in the adult by estrogen and by decreasing levels of progestin and (possibly) inhibited by ACTH or corticosteroids

B. A Consociate Modulator.

6. A consociate modulator that switches the animal from defense to submission; organized by corticosteroids perinatal1y; activated by corticosteroids and inhibited by prolactin in adulthood..

C. Sensory Filters for Motivating Stimuli.

7. An olfactory filter that is tuned to androgen- dependent pheromones and that facilitates the offense motivational mechanism and (possibly) inhibits the exploration/marking motivational mechanism; organized perinatally and activated in adulthood by androgen

8. An olfactory (vomeronasal?) filter that is tuned to estrogen-dependent pheromones and that facilitates the exploration/marking motivational mechanism and inhibits the offense motivational mechanism; organized perinatally and activated in adulthood by androgen. . . . . . . . . . . .

9. An olfactory filter that is tuned to androgen- dependent pheromones and that facilitates the exploration/marking motivational mechanism; suppressed perinatally by androgen and activated in adulthood by estrogen

D. Motor Patterning Mechanisms

10. Spinal motor patterning mechanisms of male sexual reflexes; organized perinatally and activated in adulthood by androgen

11. Certain motor patterning mechanisms of scent- marking; organized perinatally and activated in adulthood by androgen.

E. Sensory Filters for Releasing and Directing Stimuli.

12. A tacti1e receptive field that releases the motor pattern of lordosis, enlarged and sensitized by estrogen.

F. Other Possible Sites of Hormonal Action upon the Nervous System.

G. Hormonal Influences upon Endocrine Glands and Hormone.Releasing Factors.

13. Secretion of luteinizing hormone-releasing factor (LRF), luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) as a motor pattern of female sex motivational system and exploration-marking motivational system; facilitated by estrogen and androgen and suppressed by ACTH and progestin.

14. Secretion of prolactin releasing factors and prolactin as a motor pattern of the parental, male and female sex motivational systems; facilitated by ACTH and estrogen.

15. Secretion of corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF), adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) and adrenal corticosteroids as a motor pattern of submission and defense; suppressed by prolactin.

H. Hormonal Influences upon Exocrine Glands.

II. IS THERE AN ANTI -GONAD SYSTEM?

III. REPRODUCTIVE STATES

A A Female Reproductive Readiness State

B. A Female Reproductive Fulfillment State

C. A Female Reproductive Postponement State

D. A Male Reproductive Readiness State

E. A Male Reproductive Postponement State.

F. An Emigration State

G. How Reproductive States are Initiated

H. How Male and Female Differences in Reproductive States are Determined.

IV. RELATION OF DOMESTICATION TO REPRODUCTIVE STATES.

References A-B

References C-H

References J-P

References Q-Z

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