Gonadal steroid actions on brain

Gonadal steroids affect many structures in the brain and other areas of the nervous system. These molecules also undergo metabolism in several brain sites, and the interactions of the resulting products influence brain development, behavior and neuroendocrine function. The brain can be viewed as a second endocrine system in which steroid conversions and cellular actions occur, since it consists of varied regions and cell types, which exhibit a spectrum of metabolic activities. Many expressed proteins and molecular interactions in the nervous system resemble or are the same as those of classically defined endocrine tissues that are selective for different steroids.