Neural Mechanism of the Regulation of Social Behavior by Estrogen

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23240057
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Fusional social brain science
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: OGAWA Sonoko 筑波大学, 人間系, 教授 (50396610)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TSUKAHARA Shinji 埼玉大学, 理工学研究科, 准教授 (90318824) ; SAKAMOTO Hirotaka 岡山大学, 自然科学研究科, 准教授 (20363971) ; NISHIMORI Katsuhiko 東北大学, 農学研究科, 教授 (10164609) ; SAKAMOTO Toshiro 京都橘大学, 健康科学部, 准教授 (40321765)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: エストロゲン受容体 / 性差 / 社会認知 / 情動性 / 攻撃行動 / 扁桃体 / 視床下部

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Estrogen plays a central role in the regulation of social behavior. We aimed to elucidate neurobiological basis of social behavior by focusing on neural mechanisms of 1) sex-specific, 2) time-dependent, and 3) brain site-specific action of estrogen. For this purpose, we performed behavioral, neuroanatomical and molecular biological analyses in global knockout and brain site-specific knockdown mice of two types of estrogen receptors. We have found that estrogen receptor alpha and beta in the medial amygdala, medial preoptic area, hypothalamic ventromedial nucleus, and dorsal raphe nucleus might have differential roles in the regulation of sexual, aggressive behavior and social anxiety levels in male and female mice.

Free Research Field

神経科学・行動神経内分泌学