How steroid use in humans affects sexual behavior

Researchers have suggested that a new breakthrough could help reveal how steroid use in humans affects sexual behaviors and how hormones regulate the different components of speech in humans.

The following suggestion is an outcome of a study which found that introducing testosterone in select areas of a male canary's brain can affect its ability to successfully attract and mate with a female through birdsong.

Graduate student and lead author Beau Alward along with senior author Gregory F Ball, vice dean for science and research infrastructure and professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, found that when male canaries received testosterone in a specific area in the brain, the frequency of the song increased.

However, the quality of songs sung did not change in comparison to the male birds that received testosterone throughout the brain.

The paper has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).