Arnold A P, Breedlove S M
Horm Behav. 1985 Dec;19(4):469-98. doi: 10.1016/0018-506x(85)90042-x.
The actions of sex steroids on brain and behavior traditionally have been divided into organizational and activational effects. Organizational effects are permanent and occur early in development; activational effects are transient and occur throughout life. Over the past decade, experimental results have accumulated which do not fit such a simple two-process theory. Specifically, the characteristics said to distinguish organizational and activational effects on behavior are sometimes mixed, as when permanent effects occur in adulthood. Attempts to determine whether specific cellular processes are uniquely associated with either organizational or activational effects are unsuccessful. These considerations blur the organizational-activational distinction sufficiently to suggest that a rigid dichotomy is no longer tenable.
传统上，性类固醇对大脑和行为的作用被分为组织效应和激活效应。组织效应是永久性的，发生在发育早期；激活效应是短暂的，贯穿一生。在过去十年中，积累了一些不符合这种简单双过程理论的实验结果。具体而言，据说区分对行为的组织效应和激活效应的特征有时会相互交织，比如在成年期出现永久性效应的情况。试图确定特定细胞过程是否仅与组织效应或激活效应相关联的尝试并未成功。这些因素足以模糊组织效应与激活效应之间的区别，表明严格的二分法不再成立。
