Currently, the focus of my research is on the regulation of reproduction by chemosensory stimuli, particularly reproductively-inhibiting pheromones. The social environment can exert dramatic effects on the endocrine function and reproductive status of individuals. Among the most powerful social stimuli in this regard are primer pheromones or chemosensory signals. Species that are reproductively-responsive to chemosignals include many rodents, non-human primates, and humans. Surprisingly, despite the fact that chemosignals have been established as potent regulators of reproductive function in all these species, relatively little is known about the underlying neural and neuroendocrine mechanisms that mediate the responses to chemosignals. In humans, for instance, it is known that (a) chemosignals lengthen or shorten menstrual cycles so that they often become synchronized in groups of women that live together, and (b) that chemosignals capable of suppressing serum luteinizing hormone and testosterone concentrations in human males are detected by the vomeronasal organs, the same organs that detect and process many reproductively-active chemosignals in rodents and other non-human mammals. Our knowledge of the processing of these chemosignals does not, however, extend much beyond the stage of detection. Most of the post-detection processing, particularly of reproductively-inhibiting chemosignals, has yet to be determined. By identifying these pathways we will gain not only a better understanding of the neural regulation of gonadal function in rodents, but we will also increase our conceptual and mechanistic understanding of the means through which the social environment regulates reproduction in other species, including humans.

I am using two species in my research, prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) and house mice (Mus musculus). The two broad aims of my research are (a) to determine the endocrine basis of responses to reproductively-inhibiting chemosignals (as well as to determine the endocrine basis for the synthesis of these chemosignals), and (b) to determine the neural pathways through which these chemosignals are processed.

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Last modified July 10, 2002