Androgen and estrogen action in the preoptic area and activation of copulatory behavior in quail.

The sites of androgen and estrogen action on sexual behavior were studied in the preoptic area of castrated male Japanese quail by stereotaxic implantation of hormones, antihormones and metabolism inhibitors. The first experiment demonstrated that bilateral implantation of the aromatase inhibitor, androstatrienedione (ATD), in the sexually dimorphic nucleus (POM) of the preoptic area can completely suppress the behavioral activation produced by a systemic treatment with testosterone. The effects of ATD were only observed if the implants were located in the POM. In the second experiment, implants in the POM of the synthetic estrogen, diethylstilbestrol, restored copulatory behavior in castrated males while implants of the synthetic nonaromatizable androgen, methyltrienolone, were almost ineffective. During the third experiment, the activating effects of a systemic treatment with testosterone were blocked by stereotaxic implants in the POM of the antiestrogen, tamoxifen, or the antiandrogen, flutamide. The effects of tamoxifen were more pronounced than those of flutamide. In addition, tamoxifen was active in all parts of the POM while a behavioral inhibition was observed only for flutamide implants which were located in the caudal part of the nucleus. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the sexually dimorphic POM is the area where the behaviorally active estrogenic metabolites of T have to be produced. The estradiol derived from T aromatization presumably acts within the POM to activate copulation as demonstrated by the effectiveness of DES implanted in this region. Androgens also have a direct action on sexual behavior as suggested by the partial inhibition observed in flutamide-treated birds. It is, however, suggested that androgens and estrogens do not act in the same brain area to activate behavior.