The subject of this book is reproduction-specifically, the interplay
between reproductive physiology (especially neural and endocrine events)
and behavior. In presenting this topic, there are two expository goals.
The first is to study repro- duction at all of the major levels of
biological organization-from the molecular (e. g., hormone receptors in
the brain), through the cellular (e. g., ovarian morphogene- sis),
systemic (e. g., operation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-ovarian axis),
and the organismic levels of organization. Analogously, behavior is
treated from the most molecular, elementary, and fundamental components
(e. g., copulatory reflexes), through behavior in the reproductive dyad
(e. g., analysis of female sexual behav- ior), to complex social
behavior (e. g., the interaction of social context and behav- ioral sex
differences). To the extent that these levels of biological and
behavioral organization rep- resent a "vertical axis" in behavioral
neurobiology, a second goal is to treat the "horizontal axis" of
biological organization, viz., time. There are, therefore, treat- ments
of evolutionary origins (e. g., a phylogenetic survey of psychosexual
differ- entiation), genetic origins in the individual (e. g., sexual
organogenesis), ontoge- netic development (e. g., behavioral sexual
differentiation), and the immediate physiological precursors of behavior
(e. g., hormonal and nonhormonal initiation of maternal behavior). In
addition to tracing the origins of reproduction and reproductive
behavior, one extends the time-line from the behavior to its physio-
logical consequences (e. g., neuroendocrine consequences of sexual
behavior).
