Project Summary

Victor Viau, Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2004) of University of British Columbia, plans to study the routes, neurotransmitters, and cellular mechanisms by which testosterone alters circuits in the brain conveying stress-related information and how this impacts coping behavior. Dr. Viau has found testosterone can act directly in the brain, upstream from the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus, and within several nuclei including the medial preoptic area and amygdala. Despite a rich history of studies identifying potent sex steroid effects on the normal function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) and sex differences in neuropathologies associated with HPA dysfunction (such as depression in humans), little is known about how sex steroids act directly in the brain to regulate the adrenal axis. This is uncharted territory: To date, the anatomical, phenotypical, and functional specificity by which testosterone regulates input to the PVN (including those from the medial preoptic and amygdala nuclei) has not been approached. Findings should lead to a better understanding of the impact of stress, controlled by these systems, on depression.

Program Area: MULTIPLE FOCUS AREAS\Anxiety Disorders/Unipolar Depression

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