The amygdala in the guinea pig is sexually dimorphic—A morphometric study

• The first morphological work that systematically describes amygdala sexual dimorphism in mammals.
• Nuclear volumes as well as density and number of neurons in each nucleus were compared.
• The basolateral and central amygdala are in the guinea pig sexually isomorphic.
• The corticomedial amygdala in this species is highly sexually dimorphic.

Previous studies have shown that sexual dimorphism in the brain can present two morphological patterns: one in which males present greater morphological measures than females (male>female) and another in which the opposite is true (female>male). These studies have also shown that at least the part of amygdala namely the cortical and medial amygdala, an olfactory region involved in the control of reproductive physiology and behavior, is sexually dimorphic in the rat and other rodents. However, data comparing the basolateral and central amygdala between the sexes is lacking. To my knowledge, the present study is the first morphological work that systematically describes sexual dimorphism throughout the entire amygdala in the guinea pig. The results show that sex differences were found in: (a) the medial amygdala (ME) and its dorsal (MEd) and ventral (MEv) subdivisions, males showing greater values than females in volume and number of neurons, (b) the cortical amygdala (CO) and especially its posterior (COp) subdivision. In the CO, males exhibited a greater number of neurons and in the COp, males showed a greater volume and number of neurons. No differences between the sexes were observed in the basolateral and central amygdala. The results of the present study indicate that in the guinea pig sex differences are present in the large part of the amygdala and they present the male>female pattern, as it was observed in other rodents (rat and hamster), but not in the rabbit. As some previous neurochemical and functional studies have indicated that all parts of the amygdala may be sexually dimorphic, further studies are required to elucidate how much this brain region differs in both sexes.