Ruth I. Wood , Ph.D.

Research Interests

Research in my laboratory investigates how gonadal steroids, particularly androgens, influence brain function. Our model is the Syrian hamster. Currently, we are pursuing two questions. First, we are trying to understand how hormonal information from the internal environment is combined with external sensory stimuli to regulate behavior. Current understanding of sensory systems has come largely from studies presenting individual sensory cues to experimental subjects. However, the world is not perceived as a series of isolated sensory events. In our model, male hamsters integrate odor cues from females with testosterone from the gonads to control expression of sexual behavior. We are trying to understand where and how such sensory and hormonal integration takes place. A second research question concerns reward and possible addiction with anabolic steroid abuse. Although anabolic steroids were classified as controlled substances in 1991, their addiction potential remains unknown. We have recently shown that hamsters will self-administer testosterone, including self-administration directly into the brain. This suggests that anabolic steroids are rewarding, independent of their anabolic effects.

Degrees

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, PHD, 1991
University of California, Davis, BS, 1991

MEMBERSHIPS & AFFILIATIONS

Memberships

Society for Neuroscience
Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology

Masek KS, Wood RI, and Foster DL (1999). Prenatal androgens masculinize the timing of reproductive hormone secretion in sheep. Endocrinology 140(8):3459-3466.

Kim SJ, Foster DL, and Wood RI (1999). Prenatal testosterone masculinizes synaptic input to GnRH neurons in sheep. Biology of Reproduction 61:599-605.

Johnson LR and Wood RI (2001). Anabolic steroid abuse: studies in oral testosterone self-administration. Neuroendocrinology 73:285-292.

Wood RI and Williams SJ (2001). Steroidal control of male hamster sexual behavior: redundancy without hierarchy. Physiology and Behavior 72:727-733.

Wood RI, Johnson LR, Chu L, Schad CA, and Self DW. Testosterone reward: intravenous and intracerebroventricular self-administration. Submitted to Psychopharmacology.

Wood RI and Swann JM. Connections of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis in the Syrian hamster. To be submitted to Journal of Comparative Neurology.

Nagatani S and Wood RI. Leptin is a signal for the onset and maintenance of male sexual behavior. To be submitted to Neuroendocrinology

Morin LP and Wood RI (2001). A Stereotaxic Atlas of the Golden Hamster Brain. Academic Press, San Diego.

Wood RI and Schechter JE (2002). Histology: A Virtual Interactive Microscope. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.