Megan Petersdorf , Anna H. Weyher , Michael Heistermann , Jessica L. Gunson , Alison Govaerts , Simon Siame , Ruby L. Mustill , Madison E. Hillegas , Sandra Winters , Constance Dubuc , James P. Higham
{"title":"Multimodal sexual signals are not precise indicators of fertility in female Kinda baboons","authors":"Megan Petersdorf , Anna H. Weyher , Michael Heistermann , Jessica L. Gunson , Alison Govaerts , Simon Siame , Ruby L. Mustill , Madison E. Hillegas , Sandra Winters , Constance Dubuc , James P. Higham","doi":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105632","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105632","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Female fertility signals are found across taxa, and the precision of such signals may be influenced by the relative strength of different sexual selection mechanisms. Among primates, more precise signals may be found in species with stronger direct male-male competition and indirect female mate choice, and less precise signals in species with stronger indirect male-male competition (e.g. sperm competition) and direct female mate choice. We tested this hypothesis in a wild population of Kinda baboons in Zambia, combining data on female signals with reproductive hormones (estrogen and progesterone metabolites) and intra- and inter-cycle fertility. We predicted that Kinda baboons will exhibit less precise fertility signals than other baboon species, as they experience weaker direct and stronger indirect male-male competition. The frequency of copulation calls and proceptive behavior did not vary with hormones or intra- or inter-cycle fertility in almost all models. Sexual swelling size was predicted by the ratio of estrogen to progesterone metabolites, and was largest in the fertile phase, but differences in size across days were small. Additionally, there was variability in the timing of ovulation relative to the day of sexual swelling detumescence across cycles and swelling size did not vary with inter-cycle fertility. Our results suggest that female Kinda baboon sexual swellings are less precise indicators of fertility compared to other baboon species, while signals in other modalities do not reflect variation in intra- and inter-cycle fertility. Female Kinda baboon sexual signals may have evolved as a strategy to reduce male monopolizability, allowing for more female control over reproduction by direct mate choice.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":13001,"journal":{"name":"Hormones and Behavior","volume":"165 ","pages":"Article 105632"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142147847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kyoko Konishi , Emily G. Jacobs , Sarah Aroner , Immaculata De Vivo , Brianna Smith , Blair Scribner-Weiss , Nikos Makris , Johanna Seitz-Holland , Anne Remington , Harlyn Aizley , Marek Kubicki , Jill M. Goldstein
{"title":"Leukocyte telomere length and memory circuitry and cognition in early aging: Impact of sex and menopausal status","authors":"Kyoko Konishi , Emily G. Jacobs , Sarah Aroner , Immaculata De Vivo , Brianna Smith , Blair Scribner-Weiss , Nikos Makris , Johanna Seitz-Holland , Anne Remington , Harlyn Aizley , Marek Kubicki , Jill M. Goldstein","doi":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105631","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105631","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Telomere length (TL) is an important cellular marker of biological aging impacting the brain and heart. However, how it is related to the brain (e.g., cognitive function and neuroanatomic architecture), and how these relationships may vary by sex and reproductive status, is not well established. Here we assessed the association between leukocyte TL and memory circuitry regional brain volumes and memory performance in early midlife, in relation to sex and reproductive status. Participants (<em>N</em> = 198; 95 females, 103 males; ages 45–55) underwent structural MRI and neuropsychological assessments of verbal, associative, and working memory. Overall, shorter TL was associated with smaller white matter volume in the parahippocampal gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In males, shorter TL was associated with worse working memory performance and corresponding smaller white matter volumes in the parahippocampal gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In females, the impact of cellular aging was revealed over the menopausal transition. In postmenopausal females, shorter TL was associated with poor associative memory performance and smaller grey matter volume in the right hippocampus. In contrast, TL was not related to memory performance or grey and white matter volumes in any memory circuitry region in pre/perimenopausal females. Results demonstrated that shorter TL is associated with worse memory function and smaller volume in memory circuitry regions in early midlife, an association that differs by sex and reproductive status. Taken together, TL may serve as an early indicator of sex-dependent brain abnormalities in early midlife.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":13001,"journal":{"name":"Hormones and Behavior","volume":"165 ","pages":"Article 105631"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142130037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Katja Heilmann , Theresa Helene Müller , Martin Walter , Veronika Engert
{"title":"Empathic stress is decreased by prior stressor experience and increased in a position of power","authors":"Katja Heilmann , Theresa Helene Müller , Martin Walter , Veronika Engert","doi":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105617","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105617","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The observation of a stressed individual can trigger a stress response in a passive observer. Little is known about the mechanisms of this so-termed empathic stress, including the observer's empathic involvement with the stressful situation. In 108 opposite-sex stranger dyads, we expected to increase the observer's empathic involvement with a stressed target performing a standardized laboratory stressor (Trier Social Stress Test, TSST; <span><span>Kirschbaum et al., 1993</span></span>) by exposing observers themselves to the TSST one week earlier. Conversely, we intended to decrease empathic involvement by granting observers a powerful position over the targets (by asking them to evaluate the targets' TSST performance and allegedly decide on their financial compensation). A control group without any manipulation was also included. In the preregistered data analysis, two types of empathic stress were investigated: vicarious stress, which evolves irrespective of the target's stress response, and stress resonance, which is proportional to the target's stress response. Irrespective of manipulation, observers exhibited vicarious stress in subjective and high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), and synchronized with the targets' stress reactivity in cortisol release. Prior TSST experience unexpectedly decreased observers' self-reported empathy and vicarious cortisol stress reactivity. The power manipulation, conversely, led to stronger observer vicarious stress in overall heart rate and HF-HRV reactivity. Based on Wondra and Ellsworth's (2015) appraisal theory, we propose that, due to their prior stressor exposure, observers habituated to said stressor, and consequently changed their evaluation of the target's stressful situation. In contrast, observers in the powerful position may have felt responsible for the targets, triggering a stronger vicarious stressful experience.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":13001,"journal":{"name":"Hormones and Behavior","volume":"165 ","pages":"Article 105617"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X24001429/pdfft?md5=6d9481e14b8e0d5530207b6fa056d5f1&pid=1-s2.0-S0018506X24001429-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142076921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hannah E. Lapp, Melissa Salazar, Frances A. Champagne
{"title":"Postnatal rearing environment alters pup cues for caregiver-offspring interactions","authors":"Hannah E. Lapp, Melissa Salazar, Frances A. Champagne","doi":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105630","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105630","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Maternal behavior experienced in early life provides essential scaffolding to infant psychobiology with life-long effects on neurobiological and behavioral outcomes. However, infants are not passive recipients of caregiving. Evidence in rodents suggests that pups actively contribute to dam-pup interactions by soliciting maternal care with auditory, tactile, and hormonal cues. The limited bedding and nesting material (LBN) rearing manipulation induces changes in maternal care that have been attributed to maternal stress caused by the low-resource environment. The goal of the current study was to determine whether LBN also alters pup cues for maternal behavior, with implications for the mechanism of LBN-induced effects. Rat dams and pups were randomly assigned to LBN or Control rearing conditions on postnatal day (P) 0–6 and pups were fostered to the same or different condition on P6–13. LBN increased pup-directed maternal behaviors measured through 24 h monitoring using machine learning based automated analysis. LBN altered several pup cues known to affect maternal behavior including reducing pup core body temperature, reducing body weight, and altering pup vocalizations on P6 and P12. P6–13 LBN-exposed pups had elevated serum testosterone, which positively correlated with maternal licking and grooming. LBN reduced pup movement between nest attendance onset and the start of nursing, which was negatively related to dam nursing latency and contributed to longer nursing latency in LBN dams. P0–6 pup exposure to LBN also led to longer nest attendance bouts and shorter licking and grooming bouts on P7 and P9, suggesting lasting effects of LBN on pups. These data demonstrate that LBN changes pup behavioral and hormonal signals consistent with eliciting more maternal care, contributing to augmented pup-directed behaviors. This bidirectional interplay may be a critical mechanism involved in the lasting effects of early life environments.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":13001,"journal":{"name":"Hormones and Behavior","volume":"165 ","pages":"Article 105630"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X24001557/pdfft?md5=211673dc20a8319d5e2c1c322875ccb0&pid=1-s2.0-S0018506X24001557-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142058346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lisa R. Taxier , Miriam Pillerová , Taylor E. Branyan , Farida Sohrabji , Karyn M. Frick
{"title":"Astrocytic glutamate transport is essential for the memory-enhancing effects of 17β-estradiol in ovariectomized mice","authors":"Lisa R. Taxier , Miriam Pillerová , Taylor E. Branyan , Farida Sohrabji , Karyn M. Frick","doi":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105618","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105618","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Infusion of 17β-estradiol (E<sub>2</sub>) into the dorsal hippocampus (DH) of ovariectomized (OVX) mice enhances memory consolidation, an effect that depends on rapid phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and Akt. Astrocytic glutamate transporter 1 (GLT-1) modulates neurotransmission via glutamate uptake from the synaptic cleft. However, little is known about the contribution of DH astrocytes, and astrocytic glutamate transport, to the memory-enhancing effects of E<sub>2</sub>. This study was designed to test whether DH astrocytes contribute to estrogenic modulation of memory consolidation by determining the extent to which DH GLT-1 is necessary for E<sub>2</sub> to enhance memory in object recognition and object placement tasks and trigger rapid phosphorylation events in DH astrocytes<em>.</em> OVX female mice were bilaterally cannulated into the DH or the DH and dorsal third ventricle (ICV). Post-training DH infusion of the GLT-1 inhibitor dihydrokainic acid (DHK) dose-dependently impaired memory consolidation in both tasks. Moreover, the memory-enhancing effects of ICV-infused E<sub>2</sub> in each task were blocked by DH DHK infusion. E<sub>2</sub> increased p42 ERK and Akt phosphorylation in DH astrocytes, and these effects were blocked by DHK. Results suggest the necessity of DH GLT-1 activity for object and spatial memory consolidation, and for E<sub>2</sub> to enhance consolidation of these memories and to rapidly activate cell signaling in DH astrocytes. Findings indicate that astrocytic function in the DH of OVX females is necessary for memory formation and is regulated by E<sub>2</sub><sub>,</sub> and suggest an essential role for DH astrocytic GLT-1 activity in the memory-enhancing effects of E<sub>2</sub>.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":13001,"journal":{"name":"Hormones and Behavior","volume":"165 ","pages":"Article 105618"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X24001430/pdfft?md5=37ce3cb6434dfaab66b9a6e040895f86&pid=1-s2.0-S0018506X24001430-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142048811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alana Brown , Nicole J. Gervais , Laura Gravelsins , Jordan O'Byrne , Noelia Calvo , Shreeyaa Ramana , Zhuo Shao , Marcus Bernardini , Michelle Jacobson , M. Natasha Rajah , Gillian Einstein
{"title":"Effects of early midlife ovarian removal on sleep: Polysomnography-measured cortical arousal, homeostatic drive, and spindle characteristics","authors":"Alana Brown , Nicole J. Gervais , Laura Gravelsins , Jordan O'Byrne , Noelia Calvo , Shreeyaa Ramana , Zhuo Shao , Marcus Bernardini , Michelle Jacobson , M. Natasha Rajah , Gillian Einstein","doi":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105619","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105619","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO; removal of ovaries and fallopian tubes) prior to age 48 is associated with elevated risk for both Alzheimer's disease (AD) and sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea. In early midlife, individuals with BSO show reduced hippocampal volume, function, and hippocampal-dependent verbal episodic memory performance associated with changes in sleep. It is unknown whether BSO affects fine-grained sleep measurements (<em>sleep microarchitecture</em>) and how these changes might relate to hippocampal-dependent memory. We recruited thirty-six early midlife participants with BSO. Seventeen of these participants were taking 17β-estradiol therapy (BSO+ET) and 19 had never taken ET (BSO). Twenty age-matched control participants with intact ovaries (AMC) were also included. Overnight at-home polysomnography recordings were collected, along with subjective sleep quality and hot flash frequency. Multivariate Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis was used to assess how sleep varied between groups. Compared to AMC, BSO without ET was associated with significantly decreased time spent in non-rapid eye movement (NREM) stage 2 sleep as well as increased NREM stage 2 and 3 beta power, NREM stage 2 delta power, and spindle power and maximum amplitude. Increased spindle maximum amplitude was negatively correlated with verbal episodic memory performance. Decreased sleep latency, increased sleep efficiency, and increased time spent in rapid eye movement sleep were observed for BSO+ET. Findings suggest there is an association between ovarian hormone loss and sleep microarchitecture, which may contribute to poorer cognitive outcomes and be ameliorated by ET.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":13001,"journal":{"name":"Hormones and Behavior","volume":"165 ","pages":"Article 105619"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X24001442/pdfft?md5=e4370763586084e8f84858ed882242e0&pid=1-s2.0-S0018506X24001442-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142040618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tanvi A. Puri , Stephanie E. Lieblich , Muna Ibrahim , Liisa A.M. Galea
{"title":"Pregnancy history and estradiol influence spatial memory, hippocampal plasticity, and inflammation in middle-aged rats","authors":"Tanvi A. Puri , Stephanie E. Lieblich , Muna Ibrahim , Liisa A.M. Galea","doi":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105616","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105616","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Pregnancy and motherhood can have long-term effects on cognition and brain aging in both humans and rodents. Estrogens are related to cognitive function and neuroplasticity. Estrogens can improve cognition in postmenopausal women, but the evidence is mixed, partly due to differences in age of initiation, type of menopause, dose, formulation and route of administration. Additionally, past pregnancy influences brain aging and cognition as a younger age of first pregnancy in humans is associated with poorer aging outcomes. However, few animal studies have examined specific features of pregnancy history or the possible mechanisms underlying these changes. We examined whether maternal age at first pregnancy and estradiol differentially affected hippocampal neuroplasticity, inflammation, spatial reference cognition, and immediate early gene activation in response to spatial memory retrieval in middle-age. Thirteen-month-old rats (who were nulliparous (never mothered) or previously primiparous (had a litter) at three or seven months) received daily injections of estradiol (or vehicle) for sixteen days and were tested on the Morris Water Maze. An older age of first pregnancy was associated with impaired spatial memory but improved performance on reversal training, and increased number of new neurons in the ventral hippocampus. Estradiol decreased activation of new neurons in the dorsal hippocampus, regardless of parity history. Estradiol also decreased the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines based on age of first pregnancy. This work suggests that estradiol affects neuroplasticity and neuroinflammation in middle age, and that age of first pregnancy can have long lasting effects on hippocampus structure and function.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":13001,"journal":{"name":"Hormones and Behavior","volume":"165 ","pages":"Article 105616"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X24001417/pdfft?md5=e0755007ed98e401105dcc3761369974&pid=1-s2.0-S0018506X24001417-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142012593","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sex-dependent effects of antimicrobials and lipopolysaccharide on blood-brain-barrier permeability in pubertal male and female CD1 mice","authors":"Pasquale Esposito , Eleni Dubé-Zinatelli , Rebecca Krnel , Luna Cappelletti , Jacky Liang , Nafissa Ismail","doi":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105615","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105615","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Exposure to stressors during puberty can disrupt normal development and possibly increase susceptibility to neurodegenerative disorders later in life. However, the mechanisms underlying the relationship between pubertal stress exposure and neurodegeneration remain unclear. As such, the current study was designed to examine the effects of pubertal antimicrobial (AMNS) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatments on intestinal and blood-brain-barrier (BBB) permeability in male and female mice. Moreover, we also examined the sex-specific effects of pubertal AMNS and LPS treatments on gross motor activity, heart rate, and core body temperature. At four weeks of age, male and female CD1 mice were implanted with the G2 HR E-Mitter telemetry system. At five weeks of age, mice received 200 μL of broad-spectrum antimicrobial or water, through oral gavage, twice daily for seven days. Mice received an intraperitoneal injection of either saline or LPS at six weeks of age. BBB and intestinal permeability were examined 24 h, 72 h, and one week post-LPS/saline treatment. Telemetric data was collected for 48 h post-LPS/saline treatment. The results showed that pubertal AMNS and LPS treatments increased sickness behaviours and decreased body temperature and heart rate, in a sex-dependent manner. Furthermore, pubertal AMNS and LPS treatments resulted in sex-dependent regional increases in BBB permeability 24 h and 72 h post-LPS/saline treatment, while global increases in BBB permeability were only observed one week post-LPS/saline treatment. These results further our understanding of the combined effects of AMNS and LPS treatments on physiology and on the enduring negative changes observed following pubertal exposure to stressors.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":13001,"journal":{"name":"Hormones and Behavior","volume":"165 ","pages":"Article 105615"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X24001405/pdfft?md5=af14346db8202c0d83001a35f5c7b07b&pid=1-s2.0-S0018506X24001405-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141999775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Loreto A. Correa , Antonia Aspillaga-Cid , Juan Riquelme , Álvaro Ly-Prieto , Loren D. Hayes , Luis A. Ebensperger
{"title":"Activational and organizational effects of testosterone on the number of mating partners and reproductive success in males of a social rodent","authors":"Loreto A. Correa , Antonia Aspillaga-Cid , Juan Riquelme , Álvaro Ly-Prieto , Loren D. Hayes , Luis A. Ebensperger","doi":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105613","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105613","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The timing of exposure to the steroid hormone, testosterone, produces activational and organizational effects in vertebrates. These activational and organizational effects are hypothesized to relate with the number of female mating partners and reproductive success in males. We tested this hypothesis by examining 151 wild degu (<em>Octodon degus</em>) males across a 10-year study. We quantified the association between adult serum testosterone levels (i.e., an indirect index of adult activational effects) and anogenital distance (AGD) length (i.e., a direct index of fetal organizational effects), and their interaction on the number of female mating partners and reproductive success. We found no evidence of an association between adult male serum testosterone levels and the number of female mating partners, or between adult male serum testosterone levels and reproductive success. However, male AGD was positively associated with reproductive success, but not so with the number of female mating partners. Additionally, the positive association between male AGD and male reproductive success was mediated by the number of mates. Our findings do not support major roles of activational or organizational effects of testosterone on the number of female mating partners and its consequences on male reproductive success. Instead, our results suggest that compared with individual male attributes, the female social environment plays a more important role in driving male reproductive success.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":13001,"journal":{"name":"Hormones and Behavior","volume":"165 ","pages":"Article 105613"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141912396","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gitanjali E. Gnanadesikan , Emily E. Bray , Erica N. Cook , Kerinne M. Levy , Laura E.L.C. Douglas , Brenda S. Kennedy , Stacey R. Tecot , Evan L. MacLean
{"title":"Basal plasma oxytocin & fecal cortisol concentrations are highly heritable and associated with individual differences in behavior & cognition in dog puppies","authors":"Gitanjali E. Gnanadesikan , Emily E. Bray , Erica N. Cook , Kerinne M. Levy , Laura E.L.C. Douglas , Brenda S. Kennedy , Stacey R. Tecot , Evan L. MacLean","doi":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105612","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105612","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Oxytocin and cortisol are hormones that can influence cognition and behavior, but the relationships between endogenous concentrations and individual differences in cognitive and behavioral phenotypes remain poorly understood. Across mammals, oxytocin has important roles in diverse social behaviors, and in dogs, it has been implicated in human-oriented behaviors such as social gaze and point-following. Cortisol, an end-product of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, is often studied in relation to temperament and emotional reactivity, but it is also known to modulate executive functions. In this study, we measured basal fecal cortisol (<em>n</em> = 247) and plasma oxytocin (<em>n</em> = 249) in dog puppies from a pedigreed population (Canine Companions ®). We collected cognitive and behavioral data from these subjects (n = 247), including measures of human-oriented social cognition, memory, inhibitory control, perceptual discriminations, and temperament. Oxytocin concentrations were estimated to be very highly heritable (<em>h</em><sup>2</sup> = 0.90−0.99) and cortisol concentrations were estimated to be moderately-highly heritable (<em>h</em><sup>2</sup> = 0.43−0.47). Bayesian mixed models controlling for relatedness revealed that oxytocin concentrations were positively associated with spatial working memory and displayed a negative quadratic relationship with behavioral laterality, but no credible associations were seen for social measures. Cortisol concentrations exhibited a negative linear relationship with performance on an inhibitory control task and a negative quadratic relationship with bold behavioral reactions to a novel object. Collectively, our results suggest that individual differences in oxytocin and cortisol concentrations are under strong genetic control in dogs and are associated with phenotypic variation in aspects of temperament, behavioral laterality, and executive function.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":13001,"journal":{"name":"Hormones and Behavior","volume":"165 ","pages":"Article 105612"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141906425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}