Journal
PHYSIOLOGY & BEHAVIOR
Volume 93, Issue 3, Pages 492-501Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2007.10.008
Keywords
testosterone; progesterone; aggression; agonistic behavior; lizard; reptile; amygdala; nucleus sphericus
Categories
Funding
- NIMH NIH HHS [F32 MH012112, F32 MH012112-03, R01 MH048564-12, MH12112, R01 MH048564-13, R01 MH048564-10, 5R01MH048564-10, R01 MH048564-11, R01 MH048564-09A2, F32 MH012112-01A2, R01 MH048564, F32 MH012112-02] Funding Source: Medline
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Steroid hormones effect changes in both neuroanatomy and aggressive behavior in animals of various taxa. However, whether changes in neuroanatomy directly underlie changes in aggression is unknown. We investigate this relationship among steroid hormones, neuroanatomy, and aggression in a free-living vertebrate with a relatively simple nervous system, the tree lizard (Urosaurus ornatus). Weiss and Moore [1] manipulated testosterone and progesterone levels in adult male tree lizards and found that both hormones facilitated aggressive behavior toward a conspecific. In this study, we examined the brains of a subset of these animals to determine whether changes in limbic morphology were associated with hormone-induced changes in aggressive behavior. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that testosterone and/or progesterone cause changes in neural morphology that are necessary for the expression of testosterone's effects on aggressive behavior. We found that both hormones increased aggression; however, only testosterone induced changes in neuroanatomy. Testosterone increased the size of both the amygdala and nucleus sphericus. However, we could detect no individual correlations between neuroanatomy and aggression levels suggesting that the observed large-scale changes in neuroanatomy are not precisely reflective of changes in mechanisms underlying aggression. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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