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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Feb 22.
Published in final edited form as: Front Neuroendocrinol. 2012 May 23;33(3):211–229. doi: 10.1016/j.yfrne.2012.04.003

Figure 5. Growing Evidence Suggests That Reproductive Hormones Influence the Functioning of the Circadian System in Adult Rodents.

Figure 5

Color is used to indicate whether a property of the circadian system is known to be modulated by hormone exposure (blue=androgen sensitive; red=estrogen sensitive; purple=sensitive to both androgens and estrogens). Depicted are several major input structures to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), SCN properties, and output structures that are known to be hormone sensitive (vSPZ = ventral subparaventricular zone, CEA=central amygdala, BNST= oval nucleus of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, BLA= basolateral amygdala, DG= dentate gyrus). Please note that that we do not mean to imply that all output rhythms directly derive from pathways traversing the local brain oscillators depicted, nor that these structures receive output directly from the SCN. Finally, on the far right, hormonal effects on circadian output rhythm properties are summarized.