期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1991
卷号：88
期号：9
页码：3545-3548
DOI：10.1073/pnas.88.9.3545
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Gonadal steroids have traditionally been found to have short-term effects on the mating behavior of adult vertebrates, such that increased steroid hormone levels influence behavior over the course of a few days. Long-term effects also have been observed in which embryonic exposure to steroid hormone influences the sexual behavior of adults. The generality of the paradigms that have resulted from this work must be viewed with caution as all of the species studied exhibit a particular reproductive pattern. Here it is shown that in the adult red-sided garter snake, the seasonal androgen peak in the summer has a delayed action (8 months) on the male's readiness to court the next spring following emergence from hibernation. This suggests that the interval between the exposure to and the effects of steroid hormones in adult vertebrates may range from short latencies to long latencies and that the present dichotomy of organizing (permanent) versus activating (transient) effects of steroid hormones may not apply in certain instances.
