The New, Improved Abstract For The Brain Sexual Dimorphism Article

I had late afternoon brainwaves today and yesterday after wrapping up grading and some errands. The inspiration hit me to rework the article on our work with brain size and NMDA receptors in three species of shiner. It's now more streamlined, with only two figures, and better focused in general. Below is the new title and abstract. It's been one of those weird writing events when after worrying about the writing for a month or two(!), two afternoon sessions are enough to make all the moves on the manuscript (most, anyway).

"Sexual Dimorphism in the Teleost Central Nervous System Varies With Spawning Strategy", by Stallsmith et al.

ABSTRACT
Lythrurus fasciolaris is a sexually dimorphic fish with peak dimorphism during breeding season, as indicated by size, nuptial coloration and significant increase in relative gonadal mass; while Notropis stilbius and N. telescopus are not. This study asked if phenotypic sexual dimorphism is reflected in the brain as indicated by relative size of the brain, and also differences in expression of NMDA receptors involved in learning and memory. Reproductive condition male L. fasciolaris have a significantly larger average brain volume to standard length ratio than do females, but male N. stilbius and N. telescopus do not. During breeding season L. fasciolaris males have significantly higher average expression of NMDA receptors than do females while in the non-sexually dimorphic species, N. stilbius and N. telescopus, males and females are not significantly different indicating that NMDA receptors undergo pronounced sex-specific regulation in a strongly sexually dimorphic species.