HORMONES AND MATING BEHAVIOR 



1185 



ing the pretreatmcnt jicriod (Kiss and 

 Young, 1954) .« 



These data from the niah' guiiK'a i)ig, 

 especially when they are considered against 

 the background of information collected 

 from the female (p. 1190), from the experi- 

 ments on the action of heterosexual hor- 

 mones in other species (p. 1198), and from 

 studies of the effects of certain drugs on be- 

 havior patterns of the rat (Soulairac and 

 Coppin-]\Ionthillaud, 1951 ) , supjiort the hy- 

 l)othesis that a somatic or constitutional fac- 

 tor limits the action of the hormone, and ac- 

 counts for the differences displayed during 

 the precastrational period. As Grunt anrl 

 Young (1952b) visualized the situation, ani- 

 mals in their reactivity to testosterone pro- 

 pionate could be likened to an exposed but 

 undeveloped photographic film or plate, the 

 hormone to the developer. The pattern of 

 behavior or ''picture" that would be brought 

 out by the hormone would depend on wdiat 

 had been taken; with this the character of 



"Elsewhere (Young, 1954), attention is directed 

 to the striking parallel between the reaction of 

 male guinea pigs to testosterone propionate and 

 the recorded reactions of patients receiving corti- 

 cotrophin or cortisone. The susceptibility of per- 

 sons to these substances is subject to much vari- 

 ation and does not seem to bear a direct relation 

 to dosage or the length of time during which the 

 drugs are administered, apart from the fact that 

 there seems to be an ill defined threshold which 

 must be exceeded before mental symptoms can be 

 expected (Trethowan and Cobb, 1952). It is em- 

 phasized also that the major psychic alterations 

 which develop under the influence of corti- 

 cotrophin and cortisone represent, in most in- 

 stances, intensification of pre-existing disorders 

 of personality (Rome and Braceland, 1950, 1951, 

 1952), or were determined, at least, by jjrevious 

 personality patterns (Fox and Gifford, 1953; Gif- 

 ford, 1953). Observations by Cleghorn (1952) and 

 by Goolkes and Schein (1953), on the other hand, 

 suggest that the parallel is coincidental. Until the 

 problem has been resohed, the possibility that 

 basically similar relationships exist in the response 

 to gonadal hormones and cortisone should not be 

 overlooked. Of intere.st in connection with the 

 reaction to adrenal cortical steroids, is tlie ob- 

 servation (Moog, 1953) that the experimental 

 niaxiiiiuiii of alkaline phosphatase in the duo- 

 denal wall of the mouse did not rise after an 18- 

 day maximum was reached, even when the dosage 

 of cortisone was increased 3-fold. The fact is taken 

 to indicate that the rate at which the enzyme- 

 synthesizing mechanism operates and the extent 

 to which it proceeds are controlled by the reacting 

 tissue. 



the soma was held to be analogous. The 

 amount of hormone or "developer," pro- 

 vided a certain minimum or threshold (de- 

 fined in this case as the smallest amount of 

 hormone that will restore sexual behavior 

 to the precastrational level) was present, 

 would be of no consequence. 



The hy])othesis that the action of testos- 

 terone propionate on the tissues mediating 

 sexual behavior" is limited by the respon- 

 siveness of the tissues and that excessive 

 quantities are without effect has implica- 

 tions for the frequently expressed view that 

 a direct relationship exists between the 

 amoimt of circulating androgen and the 

 strength of sexual behavior. The former 

 hypothesis was suggested by what was 

 seen following the injection of an androgen 

 into the guinea pig. The latter opinion is 

 sujiported by reports that supplementary 

 androgen administered to intact rats and 

 ral)bits tends to increase the amount of 

 sexual behavior (Stone, 1938; Beach, 1940, 

 1942e, 1942h, 1947; Cheng and Casida, 1949; 

 Cheng, Ulberg, Christian and Casida, 1950; 

 Kagan and Beach, 1953; Craig, Casida and 

 Chapman, 1954), and that a quantity of 

 testosterone propionate greater than that 

 required to restore the normal level of mat- 

 ing activity in castrates increased the 

 strength of behavior beyond this level 

 (Beach and Holz-Tucker, 1949). 



Within the last year there has been some 

 modification of this view. The results from 

 an investigation in which there was a com- 

 parison of the ])re- and postcastrational 

 sexual activity of male rats receiving the 

 same amount of androgen per animal post- 

 operatively were taken to indicate that some 

 of the individual differences shown by cas- 

 trated males were due in part to differences 

 in the hormone dosages, but that the rela- 



■ Ovn- use of the term "tissues mediating mat- 

 ing beha\ior" is frankly ambiguous and requires 

 exphmation. VVlen (he role of the gonadal hor- 

 mones is "acti\'ational" as it is in the adult, 

 we think of them as acting on the nervous tissues 

 and possibly on the muscular tissues participating 

 in the display of mating behavior. If the role is 

 "organizational," as it may be during the embry- 

 onic and fetal ])eriods (p. 1222), the action is pre- 

 sumed to be on the neural centers that later 

 become invohed in the display of mating be- 

 havior. 



