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Jacques Balthazart is a biologist specialized in behavioral neuroendocrinology working at the University of Liege in Belgium. He is known for his work on the sexual differentiation of brain and behavior and on the role of brain aromatase (estrogen synthase) in the actvation of male sexual behavior. He is currently director of the Research Group on Behavioral Neurobiology within the GIGA Neurosciences of the University of Liege. Research in this group aims at identifying the neuroendocrine and neurochemical mechanisms that mediate the activation and sexual differentiation of reproductive behavior in higher vertebrates. They are also interested in the metabolism of sex steroids in the brain, in particular the aromatisation of testosterone into estradiol and in the interaction of steroids with neurotransmitters. Neurochemical and neuroanatomical sex differences are analyzed to determine to what extend they are able to explain sex differences in behavior and physiology. They also analyze the role steroids in the neural plasticity observed during ontogeny but also in adulthood in songbirds.

List of publications in Pubmed