Pfaff, D. Drive

Title

Pfaff, D. Drive

Files

Description

Donald W. Pfaff. Drive: neurobiological and molecular mechanisms of sexual motivation

What arouses an animal or human from an inactive, nonresponsive state to a condition of activity and responsiveness? What are the biological mechanisms for this change? In this book, Donald W. Pfaff focuses on a reproductive behavior typical of many female animals. Sensory stimuli from the male trigger responses in a well-defined circuit of nerve cells. At the top of the circuit, certain nerve cells receive and retain sex hormones such as estrogens and progesterone. As a result, specific genes in these nerve cells are turned on at specific times, affecting, in turn, the rest of the neural circuit and causing a state of sexual responsiveness.

According to Pfaff, the biological bases for the most primitive human drives are largely explained by mechanisms uncovered in animal brains that have not changed in their fundamental properties over millions of years of evolution. Focusing on a single instinctive behavior, in this case, the sex drive is an important step toward understanding the biological reasons for the change from unmotivated to motivated animal behavior.

ISBN

0262161842

Publication Date

1999

Publisher

MIT Press

City

Cambridge, Mass.

Keywords

sexual behavior, neurobiology, libido - physiology, sex(biology), conadal steroid hormones

Comments

The Rockefeller University Library 2nd Floor WK 900 P523 1999

The Rockefeller University Library 3rd Floor Special Collections WK 900 P523 1999

The Rockefeller University Library President's Office OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Pfaff, D. Drive

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