Neuroendocrinology And Reproduction In The Human

Neuroendocrine Aspects of Reproduction contains the proceedings of the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center's Second Symposium on Primate Reproductive Biology held in Beaverton, Oregon, on October 8-9, 1982. The symposium provided a forum for discussing the neuroendocrinology of reproduction in primates and tackled topics ranging from delayed puberty as a factor in human evolution to gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons and pathways in the primate hypothalamus and forebrain. Comprised of 18 chapters, this book begins with an overview of some basic neuroendocrine mechanisms that influence reproductive processes, followed by a discussion on control of the onset of puberty. Control of ovulation in the rhesus macaque is considered, along with hypothalamic regulation of gonadotropin secretion in women. The next section deals with reproductive cyclicity in female primates and the extent to which the central nervous system participates in the control of such cyclicity. Subsequent chapters explore the biological basis for the contraceptive effects of breastfeeding; the effects of hyperprolactinemia on reproductive function in humans; and neuroendocrine changes during menopausal flushes. This monograph will be of interest to students, practitioners, and researchers in the fields of reproductive biology, neuroendocrinology, and physiology.

The subject of this book is neuroendocrinology, that branch of biological science devoted to the interactions between the two major integrative organ systems of animals-the endocrine and nervous systems. Although this science today reflects a fusion of endocrinology and neurobiology, this synthetic ap proach is relatively recent. At the beginning of the 20th century, when the British physiologists, Bayliss and Starling, first proposed endocrinology to be an independent field of inquiry, they went to great lengths to establish the autonomy of chemical secretions in general and their independence from nervous control in particular (Bayliss, W. M. , and Starling, E. H. , 1902, The mechanism of pancreatic secretion,]. Physiol. 28:325). They argued with Pav lov, who said that there was a strong influence of the nervous system on the gastrointestinal phenomena the endocrinologists were studying. For several decades, the English physiologists prevailed, at least in the West; and Pavlov's critique was not taken to heart by the practitioners of the newly emerging discipline of endocrinology. Through the work of Harris, the Scharrers, Sawyer, Everett, and others, there has been something of a scientific detente in the latter half of this century; the hybrid field of neuroendocrinology is now regarded as one of the corner stones of modern neural science and is of fundamental importance in basic and clinical endocrinology.

Anti-social behaviors and social deficits induced mental disorders are critical problems in our society today. Social behaviors and interactions are shaped by experience, hereditary components (genes, hormones and neuropeptides) and environmental factors (photoperiods and metabolic signals). In addition to the classical gonadotropin-releasing hormone, RFamide peptides, kisspeptin and gonadotropin-inhibiting hormone are emerging as important regulators of the reproductive axis. These neuropeptides are evolutionarily conserved and are regulated by environmental factors. In this Research Topic, we advocate more recent advances in reproductive neuropeptides and sex steroids in the domains of social behavior including sexual and parental behavior, aggression, stress and anxiety. Using multiple species model, we also review how genes and the neuroendocrine system interact at the cell and organismic levels to contribute to social behavior in particular the epigenetic genomic changes caused by early life environment. We provide comprehensive insights of distinct neural networks and how cellular and molecular events in the brain regulate social behavior from a comparative perspective.

The Neuroendocrine Aspects of Reproduction...

A concise and innovative account of clinical neuroendocrine disorders and the key principles underlying their diagnosis and management.