Kathleen Chambers

Summary Statement of Research Interests

Professor Chambers studies hormones and behavior. More specifically, she is interested in how the gonadal hormones influence reproductive and nonreproductive sexually dimorphic behaviors and where they act in the brain to produce their effects on these behaviors. Her research focuses on the behavioral endpoints, conditioned food aversions and sexual behavior. The specific problems she is researching at present are: (1) the hormonal influences on conditioned taste aversion in both female and male rats and the neural sites of action of these hormones, (2) the essential neural pathways for conditioned taste aversion, and (3) the social, hormonal, and neural factors influencing the deterioration of reproductive function in aging male rats.

Book Chapters

• Chambers, K. C., Hayes, U. (2005). The role of vasopressin in behaviours associated with aversive stimuli. (Vol. 231-262) Oxford, UK: Handbook on Stress, Immunology and Behaviour/Elsevier Science.

Journal Article

• Chambers, K. C., Wang, Y. (2006). Cortical cooling induces conditioned consumption reduction in male rats. Behavioural Brain Research. Vol. 171, pp. 14-23.
• Chambers, K. C., Hayes, U. (2005). High doses of vasopressin delay extinction and accelerate acquisition of LiCl-induced conditioned taste avoidance. Physiology and Behavior. Vol. 84, pp. 625-633.
• Chambers, K. C., Wang, Y. (2004). Role of the lateral parabrachial nucleus in apomorphine-induced conditioned consumption reduction: Cooling lesions and relationship of c-Fos-like-immunoreactivity to strength of conditioning. Behavioral Neuroscience/Not Available. Vol. 118, pp. 199-213.
• Chambers, K. C., Hayes, U. (2002). Exposure to estradiol before but not during acquisition of LiCl-induced conditioned taste avoidance accelerates extinction. Hormones and Behavior. Vol. 41, pp. 297-305.

Editorships and Editorial Boards

• Consulting Editor, Behavioral Neuroscience, 1986 – 1996