Odors from the opposite sex cause reproductive activation in prairie voles. To learn about the neural control of this response to odors, Fos immunocytochemistry was used as an anatomical marker for neural activity. Bedding soiled by conspecifics was used as an odor stimulus. Activity following exposure to odors was quantified by counting the number of Fos immunoreactive nuclei in specific brain regions. In the first experiment, the response of male and female voles to same and opposite-sex odors was compared. A factor analysis of the data revealed that fifteen brain areas could placed into four groups based on correlations of the number of Fos immunoreactive nuclei. Females responded only to male odors and in only one group, consisting of the medial amygdala (MA), medial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTM), medial preoptic area (MPA), and ventral premammillary nucleus (PMV). Males responded to male and female odors in this group. In addition, males responded to male odors in a group consisting of the basolateral and olfactory regions of the amygdala, and the lateral hypothalamus, and in a group consisting of the anterior, dorsomedial and ventromedial hypothalamus, and the anterodorsal preoptic nucleus. In the second experiment, the response of females to castrate male odors was investigated. Castrate male odors induced less of a response than intact male odors in the MA, BSTM, MPA and PMV. Only the PMV showed any response to castrate male odors. In the final experiment, the response gonadotropin releasing hormone containing (GnRH) neurons of males and females to odors from the opposite sex was studied. Opposite sex odors did not induce a change in the number of GnRH immunoreactive neurons that contained Fos. However, these odors did induce an increase in the number of GnRH immunoreactive neurons in males and a decrease in females. Together, the data presented here suggest that the MA, BSTM, MPA, and PMV may mediate reproductive activation caused by opposite sex odors. GnRH neurons may also be involved, although Fos does not increase. More experiments are needed to firmly establish a role of these brain areas in reproductive activation of prairie voles.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-8996 |
| Date | 01 January 1994 |
| Creators | Goodness, Thomas Patrick |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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