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Hormone Effects on Behavior

Neuroscience in the 21st Century
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Abstract

During the last century, clues that hormones might affect behavior arose both from laboratory experiments and in the clinic. Frank Beach, working with animals at the University of California, Berkeley, demonstrated the activation of male sexual behavior by testosterone injections, as well as the facilitation of female sexual behavior by treatments with estrogens and progesterone. In the clinic, it was clear that hyperthyroid patients could be nervous and irritable, while hypothyroid patients would be sluggish and dull. As well, eunuchs (lacking testosterone from the testes) had no libido, and thus, clinical experience went hand in hand with Beach’s experimental demonstration.

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Correspondence to Yoav Litvin .

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Litvin, Y., Pfaff, D. (2015). Hormone Effects on Behavior. In: Pfaff, D., Volkow, N. (eds) Neuroscience in the 21st Century. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6434-1_59-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6434-1_59-3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6434-1

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Hormone Effects on Behavior
    Published:
    09 January 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6434-1_59-4

  2. Original

    Hormone Effects on Behavior
    Published:
    11 March 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6434-1_59-3