Heather Caldwell

Thanks to a generous gift from an anonymous donor, Fayette County Extension has received a $25,000 gift that is to be offered as a dollar-for-dollar matching gift program towards a new endowment supporting extension programs in Fayette County. Individuals who make a gift supporting this effort will see their gift doubled up to $25,000. Matching funds are available on a first come, first serve basis.

Introduction Oxytocin (OXT) is a small neuropeptide released by the hypothalamus into the bloodstream to control lactation and parturition and in the brain to control several aspects of behavior, such as emotional and social processing (Jurek and Neumann, 2018). The action of OXT within the brain is mediated by OXT binding to a specific receptor, the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) (Busnelli and Chini, 2018).

Introduction Most of the genomes of male and female individuals of the same species are the same but stark sex differences in physiological, phenotypical, or behavioural traits between the sexes are common and widespread in the animal kingdom. The songbird clade (a suborder of the perching birds) consists of more than 4000 extant avian species, and these exhibit a great diversity of sex differences in singing behaviour.