Male risk taking, female odors, and the role of estrogen receptors

Abstract

Male risk-taking and decision making are affected by sex-related cues, with men making riskier choices and decisions after exposure to either women or stimuli associated with women. In non-human species females and, or their cues can also increase male risk taking. Under the ecologically relevant condition of predation threat, brief exposure of male mice to the odors of a sexually receptive novel female reduces the avoidance of, and aversive responses to, a predator. We briefly review evidence showing that estrogen receptors (ERs), ERα and ERβ, are associated with the mediation of these risk taking responses. We show that ERs influence the production of the female odors that affect male risk taking, with the odors of wild type (ERαWT, ERβWT), oxytocin (OT) wildtype (OTWT), gene-deleted ‘knock-out’ ERβ (ERβKO), but not ERαKO or oxytocin (OT) OTKO or ovariectomized (OVX) female mice reducing the avoidance responses of male mice to cat odor. We further show that administration of specific ERα and ERβ agonists to OVX females results in their odors increasing male risk taking and boldness towards a predator. We also review evidence that ERs are involved in the mediation of the responses of males to female cues, with ERα being associated with the sexual and both ERβ and ERα with the sexual and social mechanisms underlying the effects of female cues on male risk taking. The implications and relations of these findings with rodents to ERs and the regulation of human risk taking are briefly considered.

Toxoplasma gondii infection and testosterone congruently increase tolerance of male rats for risk of reward forfeiture

“…Thus, we show that the rise in testosterone is casually linked to a greater risk tolerance. The effects of testosterone in this study could be either due to its direct interaction with androgen receptor or its aromatization and subsequent interaction of resulting estrogen with its receptors (Kavaliers et al, 2012;Kavaliers et al, 2008). Testosterone is also known to be metabolized to 5α-dihydrotestosterone, a potent agonist of androgen receptors.…”

Morphological aspects and expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors in the interdigital sinus in cyclic ewes

“…Administration of specific ERα and ERβ agonists to OVX female mice resulted in their odors mediating male behavior to female cues (Driggers and Segars, ). Thus, although ERα has been associated with male sexual behavior, both ERβ and ERα have been linked to sexual and social mechanisms (Hess, ; Kavaliers et al, ). In addition, in humans, ERs could influence central and peripheral systems associated with the expression of odor constituents (e.g., vaginal odor constituents—Traish et al, ).…”

Familiarity modulates social approach toward stressed conspecifics in female rats

“…The ability to detect sickness, distress, or danger in another is evolutionarily adaptive because the observer may use this information to avoid illness or threat, which promotes survival and wellbeing. In rodents, both male and female mice avoid the bedding of male conspecifics with parasitic infections [ 6 , 7 ] and male rats show decreased social exploration of both a male conspecific injected with lipopolysaccharide to mimic illness and avoid soiled bedding from similarly treated animals [ 8 ]. Male rats also avoid the soiled bedding of a footshocked conspecific [ 9 ] and mice will avoid the side of a chamber where odors from a footshocked conspecific were present [ 10 ].…”