Control of feeding and sexual behaviors by neuropeptide Y: physiological implications

Recent evidence suggests that a variety of hypothalamic neuropeptides may mediate interneuronal communication to coordinate diverse neuroendocrine and behavioral functions. In this work, we describe the effects of neuropeptide Y (NPY) on feeding and sexual behaviors. We observed that central administration of bolus NPY stimulated a robust, dose-related feeding response in satiated male and female rats. Continuous NPY receptor activation also evoked dose-related, intermittent feeding in a manner normally observed during nocturnal feeding. It appears that the paraventricular nucleus in the hypothalamus may be the primary site of NPY action because the anticipated reciprocal changes in NPY concentrations, in response to food deprivation followed by ad libitum food intake, occurred only in this site. Additional findings revealed that NPY-induced feeding may follow either substantial reduction or complete restraint of an inhibitory influence on feeding mediated by alpha 2-adrenoreceptor systems in satiated rats. Further, NPY was found to suppress male and female sexual behaviors. The suppressive effects on sexual behavior were apparent prior to or at the time of the onset of feeding after NPY administration. These observations may provide a neurochemical basis for clinical and animal studies on disorders of feeding associated with diminished reproductive functions.     

“AIDS is rape!” gender and sexuality in children's responses to HIV and AIDS

This paper examines young African school children's understanding of HIV and AIDS. Based on focus group interviews with children aged 7–8 in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, it explores the ways in which gender and sexuality feature in their responses to the disease. Data were collected between 2003 and 2004 through 26 focus groups involving 55 boys and 64 girls. The paper argues that younger children are active agents in giving meaning to the disease. Their agency is negotiated within complex social processes involving sexual violence, highly unequal gender/age inequalities, but also sexual expression. Those expressions are subsumed however under a regime of violence and fear catapulting men, albeit with contestation, as chief vectors in the spread of the disease and a source of girls' anxieties. Children's responses to the disease are the effects of material, symbolic and discursive forces effectively constraining the opportunities available to them and creating patterns of vulnerability especially for young girls. Interventions aimed at scaling up efforts to address young children responses to the disease must be situated in parallel efforts to end poverty, sexual violence and pervasive gender inequalities in order to foster more comprehensively the exercise of young children's agency.     

关于性贿赂研究中的几个理论问题

从性贿赂产生的根源出发,对性贿赂的界定与判断进行了分析。在此基础上,对性贿赂应否入罪等问题提出了自己的观点。     

腰椎疾患对男性性功能影响的临床观察

目的:探讨腰椎疾患对男性性功能的影响和心理干预治疗的效果.方法:157例伴有性功能障碍的男性腰椎疾患患者分为单纯腰椎疾患组(82例,A组)和继发马尾神经综合征组(75例,B组),治疗前填写国际勃起功能指数评分表(IIEF-5)、艾森克个性问卷(EPQ),同时行球海绵体肌反射(BCR)、坐骨海绵体肌反射(ICR)、阴茎背神经体感诱发电位(SSEP)潜伏期、波幅的检测.A组患者分为对照组和心理干预组;B组患者经临床分为早、中、晚期后再分为对照组和心理干预组.对照组均给予手术治疗.心理干预组除了手术治疗外,同时给予心理干预治疗.治疗后再次采用IIEF-5和BCR、ICR、SSEP检测,并与治疗前进行统计比较.结果:A组患者性功能障碍主要为轻度勃起功能障碍(ED),而B组患者主要为重度ED.A组患者BCR、ICR、SSEP检测结果同正常值相比无显著性差异(P>0.05):心理干预组IIEF-5评分较对照组显著提高(P<0.05).B组患者中,轻度ED患者潜伏期较正常值和A组延长(P<0.05),中度ED和重度ED患者潜伏期延长更加明显(P<0.05);处于临床早期的患者心理干预治疗组性功能的改善情况好于对照组(P<0.05),但是处于临床中、晚期的患者治疗组与对照组的差异不明显(P>0.05).结论:单纯腰椎疾患及临床早期马尾神经综合征患者性功能障碍的发生主要受心理因素的影响,而中晚期马尾神经综合征患者以神经功能损伤为主.心理治疗能够改善单纯腰椎疾患及临床早期马尾综合征患者的性功能,对处于临床中、晚期的马尾神经综合征患者效果不明显.     

Vasopressin receptors in the mouse (Mus musculus) brain: sex-related expression in the medial preoptic area and hypothalamus

We have investigated the distribution of vasopressin binding sites in the brain of male and female adult mice using a radio-iodinated ligand and film autoradiography. Vasopressin receptors were uncovered in various regions of the brain including the basal nucleus of Meynert, the substantia innominata, the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, the substantia nigra pars compacta and the hypoglossal nucleus. A sex-related difference in the expression of vasopressin receptors was seen in the medial preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus corresponding to the rat sexually dimorphic nucleus in the rat and in the hypothalamic mammillary nuclei. In both structures the autoradiographic labeling is more intense in females than in males. These observations confirm that vasopressin binding sites are present in the hypothalamic preoptic area of most species examined so far and that sex-related expression of neuropeptide receptors could trigger sex-related behavioral differences.     

冲动症及其司法精神鉴定(附1例报告)

作者通过对1例冲动症案例的分析,结合文献报道,初步阐述了冲动症的概念范围、临床特征与诊断标准。并讨论了其与强迫症、性心理障碍、正常性犯罪之间的区别和责任能力的评定。     

Benign coital headache

We studied the natural history of patients with a diagnosis of benign coital headache who presented to a private neurological clinic between the years 1978 and 1991. Thirty-two patients (24M, 8F) were invited to participate and 26 patients (83%) responded. The period of follow-up ranged from six months to 14 years (median 6 years). Thirteen patients (50%) had recurrent attacks of coital headache epochs separated by intervals of up to 10 years. Eleven of these patients suffered a concomitant primary headache whereas this was present in only one of those patients without recurrent attacks of coital headache (p < 0.001). In all but one patient, who had a transient blurred vision, the headache was not accompanied by nausea, vomiting, visual disturbances, sensory/motor disturbances, or unconsciousness. We concluded that benign coital headache can be clearly distinguished from headaches due to cerebral aneurysm or arteriovenous malformation rupture. The presence of a concomitant primary headache syndrome is a risk-factor for recurrence of coital headache.     

Effects of exposure to an estrous female on forebrain monoaminergic neurotransmission in the non-copulating male rat

Regional changes in the rate of brain monoamine synthesis were monitored in male rats exposed to, but prevented from physical contact with, an estrous or an ovariectomized female. The in vivo rate of tyrosine and tryptophan hydroxylase activities were estimated by measuring the accumulation of DOPA and 5-HTP following inhibition of cerebral aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase by means of 3-hydroxybenzylhydrazine (NSD-1015) treatment (100 mg/kg i.p.) 5 min upon NSD-1015 treatment, the males were exposed to an intact estrous female or an ovariectomized female for 20 min before decapitation and brain dissections. Exposure to an estrous female produced an increased rate of tyrosine and tryptophan hydroxylase activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, the dorso-lateral neostriatum and in the ventral neostriatum, in comparison with home-cage controls. By the same comparison, exposure to an ovariectomized female resulted in an increased rate of tyrosine hydroxylase activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, byt not in the neostriatal areas, whereas tryptophan hydroxylase activity was unaffected. Finally, exposure to the empty test cage, with no stimulus females present, did not produce any statistically significant changes in the rate of tyrosine or tryptophan hydroxylase activity in any of the brain areas sampled. Taken together with recent findings from this laboratory, the present results demonstrate that the level of sexual motivation brought about by the olfactory, auditory and/or visual stimulation of a receptive female is associated with an increased demand on catecholamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine synthesis in the limbic forebrain of the male rat. The finding that the presence of an unestrous female produced an enhanced demand on tyrosine hydroxylase activity in the medial prefrontal neocortex demonstrates that the sexual incentive provided by the estrous female may not be the only factor responsible for all the effects observed in the present study. In fact, there is a distinct possibility that the intense challenge produced by sexually significant stimuli is but an endpoint, and that the changes found in forebrain monoamine synthesis is a reflection of an environmental challenge not necessarily specifically linked to the sexual behavior.