Prenatal uterine environment and sexual differentiation of rats

prenatal factors relevant to hormonal environment on the sexual differentiation of behavior, morphology and central nervous system in rats. The effects of such factors as prenatal sex composition of the litter and position in utero on the sexual differentiation of normally developed (i.e. untreated) male and female rats was examined. In addition, the effects of experimentally induced changes in the perinatal hormonal milieu on the central nervous system and behavior of male rats were assessed. This general introduction provides an overview of the effects of hormones on reproductive morphology and behavior, and function and morphology of the central nervous system of mammals, with emphasis on rats. Current questions and hypotheses that led to the experiments presented in this thesis will be outlined.