ArticleHormones and behavior2010
Aggressive interactions rapidly increase androgen synthesis in the brain during the non-breeding season.
Article in Hormones and behavior, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed, 135 citations in OpenAlex.
- The gonad as a mediator of life history tradeoffs: Antagonistic hormonal pleiotropy facilitates evolutionary divergence in reproductive strategies.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) as a tool for conservation.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2026Review
- Morph-specific Dorsal Fin Characteristics and Sex Steroids in Muscles Across Life History Stages in a Sex Dynamic Marine Fish,Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Brain transcriptomics of a social challenge and maternal aggression in incubating female tree swallows.Hormones and behavior · 2025Article
- An Aggressive Interaction Rapidly Increases Brain Androgens in a Male Songbird during the Non-breeding Season.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Sex diversity in the 21st century: Concepts, frameworks, and approaches for the future of neuroendocrinology.Hormones and behavior · 2024Article
- Sex and seasonal differences in neural steroid sensitivity predict territorial aggression in Siberian hamsters.Hormones and behavior · 2023Article
- Sex differences in aggressive intensities and brain steroids during status resolution in a sex changing fish, Lythrypnus dalli.Hormones and behavior · 2023Article
- Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) increases undirected singing behavior and alters dopaminergic regulation of undirected song in non-breeding male European starlings (Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- Mating in the cold. Prolonged sperm storage provides opportunities for forced copulation by male bats during winter.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- Sex-specific endocrine regulation of seasonal aggression in Siberian hamsters.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Neuroendocrine Mechanisms Underlying Non-breeding Aggression: Common Strategies Between Birds and Fish.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2021Review
- Seasonal regulation of behaviour: what role do hormone receptors play?Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- How research on female vertebrates contributes to an expanded challenge hypothesis.Hormones and behavior · 2020Review
- Testosterone synthesis in the female songbird brain.Hormones and behavior · 2020Article
- Photoperiod modulates the gut microbiome and aggressive behavior in Siberian hamsters.The Journal of experimental biology · 2020Article
- Melatonin mediates seasonal transitions in aggressive behavior and circulating androgen profiles in male Siberian hamsters.Hormones and behavior · 2020Article
- The neurogenomic transition from territory establishment to parenting in a territorial female songbird.BMC genomics · 2019Article
- Tissue-specific expression profiles and positive selection analysis in the tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) using a de novo transcriptome assembly.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- New concepts in the study of the sexual differentiation and activation of reproductive behavior, a personal view.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2019Review
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
In male song sparrows (Melospiza melodia), territorial challenges during the breeding season can rapidly increase circulating levels of testosterone (T). During the non-breeding season, male song sparrows are highly aggressive, but the gonads are regressed and plasma T levels are non-detectable and unaffected by territorial challenges. The pro-hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is elevated in song sparrow plasma and brain during the non-breeding season and may be locally converted to sex steroids in the brain to regulate aggression. The enzyme 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/Delta5-Delta4 isomerase (3beta-HSD) converts DHEA to androstenedione (AE) using the cofactor NAD(+), and this is a critical rate-limiting step. We predicted that brain 3beta-HSD activity varies seasonally and is rapidly modulated by aggressive challenges. In the first study, brain 3beta-HSD activity was highest in the non-breeding season in specific regions. In the second study, a simulated territorial challenge rapidly increased aggressive behavior in non-breeding song sparrows. Brain 3beta-HSD activity, when measured without exogenous NAD(+), increased by approximately 250 to 500% in telencephalic regions of challenged subjects. When brain 3beta-HSD activity was measured with exogenous NAD(+), these effects of territorial challenges were not observed. These data suggest that territorial challenges rapidly increase endogenous NAD(+) levels or increase 3beta-HSD activity specifically within a NAD-rich subcellular compartment. Together, these two studies suggest a shift from systemic to local sex steroid signaling in the non-breeding season. Local steroid signaling produces high spatial and temporal specificity of steroid signals and avoids the costs of high systemic T levels during the non-breeding season.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.