UCLA Neuroscience Program Ph.D. Admissions Neuroscience Faculty UCLA and Beyond  



Roger Gorski
Hormonal Influences on the Development of Structural and Functional Sex Differences in the Brain

Email Address:  rgorski@mednet.ucla.edu

Work Address:
CHS
Phone Numbers:
310-825-9574 Office

Selected Publications:

Gorski, RA Hypothalamic imprinting by gonadal steroid hormones.. Advances in experimental medicine and biology. . 2002; 511: 57-70; discussion 70-3.
Allen LS, Gorski, RA Sex differences in the human brain.. Encyclopedia of the Human Brain 2002; 4: 289-308.
Kawashima S, Gorski RA Sexual differentiation of the brain: an historical perspective.. Neuroplasticity, Development and Steroid Hormone Action 2002; 1-7.
Gorski RA Sexual differentiation of the brain.. The FASEB J. 2000; 14: A42.
Gorski RA Sexual differentiation of the nervous system.. Principles of Neural Science 2000; 1130-48.
Woodson JC, Gorski RA Structural sex differences in the mammalian brain: Reconsidering the male/female dichotomy.. Sexual Differentiation of the Brain 2000; 229-55.
Gorski RA, Balleine BW, Woodson JC The expression of organizational differences in androgen-dependent partner preference requires sexual experience in female rats exposed to androgen perinatally.. Soc. Neurosci. Abstr. 1999; 25-73.
Gorski RA Sexual differentiation of the brain.. Principles of Medical Biology: Reproductive Endocrinology and Biology 1998; 159-68.
Gorski RA Sexual differentiation of the brain.. Principles of Medical Biology: Reproductive Endocrinology and Biology 1998; 159-68.
Woodson, JC Balleine, BW Gorski, RA Sexual experience interacts with steroid exposure to shape the partner preferences of rats.. Hormones and behavior. . 2002; 42(2): 148-57.
Singh, R Pervin, S Shryne, J Gorski, R Chaudhuri, G Castration increases and androgens decrease nitric oxide synthase activity in the brain: physiologic implications.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. . 2000; 97(7): 3672-7.
Research Interest:

Gorski's laboratory continues to study the gonadal hormone-dependent process of the sexual differentiation of brain structure and function. Studies which were published or accepted for publication during the period of this annual report include the demonstration that the sensitivity of the sexually dimorphic nucleus of the preoptic area (SDN-POA), as measured by its volume, is influenced by the gonadal hormonal environment perinatally, but not in the now "classical" sense. Thus, when male rats are castrated on postnatal day (PN-D) one, the SDN-POA has lost its responsiveness to gonadal hormones by PN-D6, but intact males retain some responsiveness to endogenous hormones well beyond PN-D6 (with Davis). The difference between the responsiveness of the castrated and intact male may well be due to an earlier "commitment" to cell death in the castrates since the prevention of apoptotic neuronal cell death is at least one mechanism of hormone action on the developing SDN-POA (with Davis).