4. HORMONES AND BEHAVIOR
209
The complexity of the patterns of behavior is an obstacle to the development of satisfactory systems for scoring behavior (9). Ideally, a score
should reveal precisely and at a glance what happened during a test, but
unfortunately, as Clark and Aronson (91), Valenstein et al. (92), and
Larsson (93) emphasized, it does not always do so. The score obtained
in a test bears some resemblance to the score in a baseball game. A score
of 1 to 0 tells a reader nothing about the combination of hits, walks, and
errors which produced the run, but it does reveal that the character of
the game was very different from that in which the score was 7 to 6 or
15 to 1. The score in the behavioral test as it has been developed by
investigators working with fishes, birds, and mammals has just this role.
As long as the limitations are recognized, methods of scoring will have
an important place in the quantification of behavior.
The variability of behavioral display from individual to individual
is a problem in itself. The variability is explained partly by the circumstance that patterns of behavior are composed of many elements or
measures, each of which usually varies greatly and independently of
the variations in the other elements of the pattern. The existence of these
many elements and their variability may complicate the recording and
analysis of behavior [see Denenberg (81) for a description of methods
for recording, coding, and correlating these elements of a complicated
pattern], but these features can be turned very easily to the advantage
of the investigator of the hormones and behavior. The variability is a
means by which the maturity or immaturity of a pattern can be revealed;
in male mammals, for example, a variable in the form of an incomplete
pattern is observed in prepuberal subjects (94-97). Familiarity with the
variability displayed within a group of animals and with the fact that
many individuals tend to display the same pattern from cycle to cycle,
led to an analysis of the role of tissue responsiveness in the action of
gonadal hormones in bringing mating behavior to expression (98, 99).
This tendency of individuals to display the same pattern of behavior
can be useful to the endocrinologist or biochemist interested in behavior.
If the establishment of the character of these patterns of behavior in
intact animals is a part of the methodology of the experiment, and therefore if the animal is allowed to be its own control, the possibility exists
that the effectiveness of hormones administered in a replacement therapy
can be determined most accurately by comparing the character of the
behavior displayed postoperatively and under experimental conditions
with that displayed preoperatively. An example of the procedure is
provided by experiments on the male guinea pig in which quantitative
and qualitative tests were made of the action of testosterone, estradiol,
and estrone (99, 100).
209
The complexity of the patterns of behavior is an obstacle to the development of satisfactory systems for scoring behavior (9). Ideally, a score
should reveal precisely and at a glance what happened during a test, but
unfortunately, as Clark and Aronson (91), Valenstein et al. (92), and
Larsson (93) emphasized, it does not always do so. The score obtained
in a test bears some resemblance to the score in a baseball game. A score
of 1 to 0 tells a reader nothing about the combination of hits, walks, and
errors which produced the run, but it does reveal that the character of
the game was very different from that in which the score was 7 to 6 or
15 to 1. The score in the behavioral test as it has been developed by
investigators working with fishes, birds, and mammals has just this role.
As long as the limitations are recognized, methods of scoring will have
an important place in the quantification of behavior.
The variability of behavioral display from individual to individual
is a problem in itself. The variability is explained partly by the circumstance that patterns of behavior are composed of many elements or
measures, each of which usually varies greatly and independently of
the variations in the other elements of the pattern. The existence of these
many elements and their variability may complicate the recording and
analysis of behavior [see Denenberg (81) for a description of methods
for recording, coding, and correlating these elements of a complicated
pattern], but these features can be turned very easily to the advantage
of the investigator of the hormones and behavior. The variability is a
means by which the maturity or immaturity of a pattern can be revealed;
in male mammals, for example, a variable in the form of an incomplete
pattern is observed in prepuberal subjects (94-97). Familiarity with the
variability displayed within a group of animals and with the fact that
many individuals tend to display the same pattern from cycle to cycle,
led to an analysis of the role of tissue responsiveness in the action of
gonadal hormones in bringing mating behavior to expression (98, 99).
This tendency of individuals to display the same pattern of behavior
can be useful to the endocrinologist or biochemist interested in behavior.
If the establishment of the character of these patterns of behavior in
intact animals is a part of the methodology of the experiment, and therefore if the animal is allowed to be its own control, the possibility exists
that the effectiveness of hormones administered in a replacement therapy
can be determined most accurately by comparing the character of the
behavior displayed postoperatively and under experimental conditions
with that displayed preoperatively. An example of the procedure is
provided by experiments on the male guinea pig in which quantitative
and qualitative tests were made of the action of testosterone, estradiol,
and estrone (99, 100).