Sex Differences in Hormonal Modulation of Anxiety Measured with Light-Enhanced Startle: Possible Role for Arginine Vasopressin in the Male

Increased acoustic startle in the presence of bright ambient light, a phenomenon called light-enhanced startle (LES), is dependent on the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. In contrast to gonadally intact male rats, LES was seen reliably in castrated male rats and in female rats, although it fluctuated significantly with reproductive state. Replacement with testosterone (T) or combined estradiol (E2) and dihydrotestosterone (DHT), but not with either E2 or DHT alone, attenuated LES in castrated rats. However, replacement with T or E2 in ovariectomized rats did not decrease LES. In contrast, no sex difference was seen in the central amygdala-dependent acquisition or expression of fear-potentiated startle. In addition, T did not reduce expression of fear-potentiated startle in castrated rats. T-replaced castrated males injected centrally with mixed arginine vasopressin (AVP) V1a/b receptor antagonists daily throughout the replacement period failed to show a reduction in the expression of LES. These data suggest that T attenuates LES, but not fear-potentiated startle, through a mechanism that may involve AVP.

• Publication year

  2005

• Venue

  Journal of Neuroscience

• Publication date

  2005-09-28

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0127-05.2005PMID 16192392PMCID PMC6725585
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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