Hormones and Sexual Behavior

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Abstract
From an attempt made 30 years ago to attain a limited objective, we have proceeded with what turned out to be a long-term investigation. Evidence has accumulated indicating that the gonadal hormones have a broad role in the determination of behavior. We have long known that they act to bring sexual behavior to expression, certainly in adult vertebrates below man. We now know, in addition, that during a period of organization and differentiation which is prenatal in the guinea pig and monkey and postnatal in the rat, the hormones act according to principles which appear to be identical with those operative during the differentiation of the genital tracts, and they effect a corresponding differentiation or organization of neural tissues. The data thus far accumulated from a study of the behavior of two female pseudohermaphroditic monkeys suggest that this early hormonal action is also responsible for the establishment of much of the sex-related behavior which is a part of the masculinity or femininity of an individual but which is not related directly to the reproductive processes.