Testosterone in Rodents Essay

Robert Sapolsky’s collection of essays “The Trouble with Testosterone” is a thorough examination of the evolutionary roots of human behavior, by discussing the biology behind it. The book contains eighteen essays that explore this issue. The Stanford neuroscientist is a great writer: he concisely explains his views in each essay and makes it funny and easy for a layman to understand and absorb. He unpacks complex scientific ideas and explains them. The essay that I found most interesting was the titular essay, which was an examination of flawed logical reasoning that biologists make when they think there is a causal relationship between testosterone and aggression. Sapolsky, in that essay, explains why that is not true. These essays did not

Blum consulted University of California at Berkeley behavioral endocrinologist Marc Breedlove about how hormones contribute to gender differences. Breedlove’s studies support the idea that there are biological differences between males and females that distinguish each gender’s behavior. This suggests that it’s worthwhile to look at human evolution to understand why these biological differences exist – what is the purpose of masculinity and why do masculine traits such as aggression develop predominantly in males?

1. Based on the information provided about the regulation of testosterone secretion, propose a testable hypothesis to explain how trenbolone acetate caused Frank’s testicles to shrink.

Sub-point B: According to an article on CESAR, a website filled with university-based research addressing issues related to alcohol and other drugs, last updated on Tuesday, October 29, 2013, they state that in the early 1930’s a team of scientists created a synthetic (lab made) form of testosterone (a male hormone) to help treat men who were unable to produce enough of the  hormone for normal growth, development and sexual functioning. They were later used in World War 2

Testosterone is a hormone in both men and women, but in greater extent in the men, testosterone is a chemical compound (C19H28O2) and is responsible for the characteristic of men such as, sexual characteristics/sexual organs, deepening of the voice, and facial and body hair. (Neil Schlager, Jayne Weisblatt, and David E. Newton 2006) Testosterone/Steroids has bodybuilding and masculinizing effect as well as treating a variety of medical conditions, like asthma, the steroid is used in a puffer, they can be used for anabolic or androgenic purposes and made for synthetic purposes making them illegal. (BROWER, K. J. 2001) Many athletes will use these to gain an advantage on competitors, with lean muscle and higher endurance, with many uses, there

Testosterone is a hormone that is more concentrated in men than in women as it is a male sex hormone, it is thought to influence aggression from a young age onwards, due to its actions on the brain areas involved in controlling aggression. One research study that was done on testosterone involved measuring the testosterone found in the saliva of violent and non-violent criminals. This study was concluded by Dabbs et al

Anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) can change the person’s social behaviors, such as their sexual satiety when they are adolescence and could also make them have aggressive behaviors. This is more likely to happen in an adolescent brain because it is more susceptible than adult brains. (Montalto, Salas-Ramirez, Sisk, 2010). Aggression is also the most reported side effects of the use of steroids in adults and teenagers. Those that used AAS were most likely to be aggressive and act in violent ways when those who were not. This is what the name “roid rage” comes from. (Lumia, McGinnis, 2010). The use in steroid use has increased dramatically in recent years with males. It is mostly used among adolescent males aging from as young as 11 to gain body mass and strength for completive sports. Using of this drug can serve life-long consequences and be permanent. (Lumia,

Interaction between hormones and behavior has shown to be linked to higher aggression and hostility. The aggression found relates to sexual maturation and genetic characteristics. Androgens and testosterone are major influences of aggression. Hormones affect behavior and emotions. These aggressive effects can stem from contemporaneous organizational influences.

The focus of this particular research paper was to prove or disprove the theory that testosterone levels would rise based on the presence of a toy gun. The independent variable consisted of a pellet gun identical to a Desert Eagle handgun for the experimental subjects and the Mouse Trap children’s game for the control subjects. The dependent variable was the amount of hot sauce each test subject placed into individual cups for the next test subjects. The population studied for this research were 30 male college students willing to provide saliva samples. The procedures that were followed were simplistic. Each of the men provided

The experiment shows reductionism. The intricate idea of ‘aggression’ and ‘generosity’ are studied and a cause and effect relationship is established between them and testosterone. The amygdala and hypothalamus play an important role in emotions (aggression). However, there was no mention of their role in the body nor how it may affect the results in different ways.

In a study conducted by Mrazik and Dombrowski (2010), prenatal testosterone exposure has been linked to children with high mental abilities. Testosterone influences the right side of the brain, which is where our science, mathematics, reasoning and abstract thinking take place. There is evidence that excessive prenatal exposure to testosterone facilitates increased connections in the brain, especially in the right prefrontal cortex. Children that have above-average intelligence have very highly developed brain networks in that specific area that is influenced by testosterone. While this study claims that excessive prenatal exposure to testosterone leads to higher intelligence, the origin of the exposure to testosterone is still unclear. Previous

• Testosterone - a male hormone produced mainly in the testes. Testosterone causes the development of male sex characteristics, such as a deep voice and a beard. It also strengthens muscles and bone mass.

“Goy then went on to show that if you manipulate testosterone level – raising it in females, cutting it off in males – you reverse those effects, creating sweet little boy monkeys and rough-and-tumble girls. (Blum, 238)

    Anabolic-androgenic steroids are a group of hormones, which includes the natural male hormone, testosterone, and a number of synthetic compounds. "Anabolic" refers to muscle building, while "androgenic" refers to increased masculine characteristics. Anabolic effects are basically muscle growth. Androgenic effects produce secondary male sex characteristics like facial hair, body hair, deepening of the voice, and so on. In the 1950's scientists were trying to isolate the muscle building properties without the masculinizing effects. This lead to the development of synthetic anabolic steroids.

Both glands produce two distinct hormones, but produce differing amounts of each hormone. Masculine hormones such as androgens and testosterone are predominately produced by male testes. These hormones at high levels can be related to aggressive behavior regardless of sex, but high levels are most commonly found in males. High levels of feminine hormones or estrogen, most commonly found in females, have recently been linked to aggressive behavior as well. While high levels of estrogen in females and high levels of testosterone in males have been linked to aggressive behavior, normal levels of these hormones have been known to cause aggression as well. Although these hormones have been related to human behavior, scientists have concluded that these hormones alone do not dictate behavior (Morris & Maisto, 2005).