Reproduction Collaboratory

Contact:  Kim Wallen, PhD, kim@emory.edu, Ph. 404-727-4125

At A Glance

The Reproduction Collaboratory has made significant discoveries about sexual behavior in five major areas: the medial amygdala, estrogens, energetics, steroid responsiveness and sex differences. Discoveries include:

• Phytoestrogen supplements, an increasingly popular soy-derived alternative to estrogen replacement therapy, do not produce the same molecular and behavioral effects on the brain as endogenous estrogen and can actually have anti-estrogenic effects on female sexual behavior.
  
• Medroxyprogesterone acetate, a synthetic form of the naturally occurring steroid hormone progesterone widely used in contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy, increases aggression and anxiety and reduces sexual activity in female monkeys.
  
• Caenorhabditis elegans, a hermaphroditic self-fertilizing nematode, produces a pheromone that appears to regulate the male sex drive.
  
• Food restriction significantly suppresses both reproductive and maternal behaviors in rodents.
  
• Visual sexual stimuli produce much higher levels of activation in the amygdala of the male brain than the female brain.