Department of Neurobiology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
Nat Rev Neurosci. 2012 Jul 18;13(8):521-7. doi: 10.1038/nrn3291.
Recent discoveries show that behaviourally relevant sensory experience drives the production of oestradiol - the classic sex steroid oestrogen - in auditory neurons in the adult brain of both males and females. This brain-generated oestrogen markedly enhances the efficiency of the neural coding of acoustic cues and shapes auditory-based behaviours on a timescale that is relevant for sensory processing and congruent with the action of rapid neuromodulators. These findings are re-shaping our current understanding of the mechanistic framework that supports sensory processing and the functional roles of hormones in the brain, and have implications for multiple health issues.
最近的发现表明，行为相关的感觉体验会促使成年雄性和雌性大脑中的听觉神经元产生出经典的性激素雌激素——雌二醇。这种大脑产生的雌激素显著提高了听觉线索神经编码的效率，并在与快速神经调质作用一致且与感觉处理相关的时间尺度上塑造了基于听觉的行为。这些发现正在改变我们目前对支持感觉处理的机械框架以及激素在大脑中的功能作用的理解，并对多种健康问题产生影响。
