Elsevier

Physiology & Behavior

Volume 8, Issue 3, March 1972, Pages 523-534
Physiology & Behavior

Theoretical review
Gonadal hormones and behavioral regulation of body weight☆

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Abstract

Gonadal hormones have important effects on the behaviors that determine body weight in laboratory rats (i.e., eating, locomotor activity, and thermoregulatory behavior). These effects are most evident in the female where there are consistent, predictable changes in these behaviors which are correlated with fluctuations in plasma hormone levels during estrous cycles, puberty, pregnancy, or after gonadectomy and replacement therapy. Estradiol, which seems to be the principal ovarian steroid affecting body weight, may act directly on separate neural loci to: (a) inhibit food intake and (b) stimulate locomotor activity, possibly by lowering the set-point of a hypothalamic lipostat. Estradiol does not affect eating and running in prepubertal female rats, perhaps because of influences of pituitary hormone(s) at this age. Ovarian hormones also alter the taste preferences of rats and may be responsible for the changes in self-selection of dietary components during different reproductive states. Some implications of this research are discussed and possible directions for future research suggested.

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    ☆

    Supported by postdoctoral research fellowship MH46391-01A1 from the National Institute of Mental Health to G. N. W. and by grant HD-04467 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to H. H. Feder. I am grateful to Harvey Feder, Alison Fleming, Lawrence Morin, Rae Silver, and Irving Zucker for their helpful comments and criticisms of earlier versions of this paper.

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