'We're often told how the foods we eat, the amount of exercise we do, and even the quality of our sleep can all impact our mood and mental health.' But what about our reproductive hormones?
In a parallel line of research, my laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin has mapped out a direct line from the mPOA to the VTA, and the brain's reward centers. Members of my laboratory have been studying the connections between the mPOA and the brain's reward system, particularly in the context of drug addiction.
Several members of my laboratory have focused on the interaction between estradiol, a form of estrogen, in the mPOA and the VTA. We found that estradiol in the mPOA influences the output of GABA to the VTA, which in turn influences the brain's reward response to addictive drugs, particularly cocaine.
Moreover, my former graduate student, Julia Martz, now at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, recently showed that the pattern of VTA innervation was comparable between male and female rats, but that sex differences existed in the hormone-receptor profile of projections to the VTA.
In other words, sex differences in depression and substance abuse disorders may be, at least partly, dependent on activity in the mPOA.
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