Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Caggiula, Anthony R.
• Shaw, David H.
• Antelman, Seymour M.
• Edwards, David J.

Titel

Interactive effects of brain catecholamines and variations in sexual and non-sexual arousal on copulatory behavior of male rats

Ist Teil von

• Brain research, 1976-07, Vol.111 (2), p.321-336

Ort / Verlag

Netherlands: Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

1976

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Elsevier Journal Backfiles on ScienceDirect (DFG Nationallizenzen)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In pargyline pretreated male rats, an intraventricular 6-hydroxydopamine procedure which resulted in subtotal brain catecholamine (CA) depletion produced a mild deficit in copulatory behavior followed by rapid recovery. Challenges employed to study the behavioral capacities of these ‘recovered’ animals revealed: (1) a heightened sensitivity to acute treatement with the CA synthesis inhibitor alpha-methyl tyrosine (AMT) as reflected in a reinstatement and exaggeration of the original copulation deficit; (2) a greater dependence on the sexual eliciting properties of the female, since abolishing her soliciting behavior also reinstated and exaggerated the sexual dysfunction; and (3) a pattern of behavioral impairment indicating increased difficulty in both initiating sexual activity and maintaining copulatory performance. Furthermore, in males not copulating after 6-OHDA/AMT treatment, copulation could easily be induced by the simple application of a non-specific activating stimulus. On the basis of these data and parallel findings reported for other behaviors, we have concluded that: (1) both the initiation and maintenance of copulatory behavior in the male rat is in part dependent on normal functioning in one or more of the brain CA-containing systems; and (2) this copulatory deficit is symptomatic of a broader functional impairment reflecting reduced behavioral responsiveness to stimuli that normally elicit appetitive or approach responses but not to stimuli requiring more automatic, inhibitory responses.