Efecto de las hormonas sexuales en la audición

Abstract

Amphibian anurans (frogs and toads) widely use sound communication in social interactions. During breeding season males congregate in pools and ponds, where they emit an acoustic signal, named advertisement call that attracts females and indicates its presence to other males. Previously, it has been established that steroid hormones, along with some neuropeptides, can alter the sensory processing of these signals in the individual recipient, through its effect on nuclei and pathways of the central and peripheral auditory nervous system. One of the ways that hormones may alter the perception and response to acoustic signals of other conspecific males is modulating the intensity threshold of response to these signals. However, this possibility has not been explored in males of any species and there are only scarce data on changes in hearing thresholds of human females during the menstrual cycle, which have not been explained. Given the conserved organization of the nuclei and pathways involved in sound processing and distribution of steroid receptors in the brain of vertebrates, experiments and results obtained in anurans could be the basis for understanding other more complex systems of acoustic communication and social interaction in birds and mammals.