Several personality traits, including aggressiveness and sensation seeking, have been hypothesized to be influenced by prenatal androgen exposure, though evidence for this proposition is limited. We investigated whether individual differences in aggressiveness, sensation seeking, and several prosocial personality traits can be predicted from differences in the 2D:4D digit ratio, a putative marker of prenatal androgen activity. A total of 164 undergraduates (87 men, 77 women) completed self-report measures of physical and verbal aggression, as well as a standardized measure of sensation seeking, and five scales to assess empathy, nurturance, expressivity/femininity, instrumentality/masculinity, and assertiveness. Two sex-dimorphic tests of spatial ability also were included. Men had a lower 2D:4D ratio than women, confirming the typical sex difference in digit proportions. Significant sex differences were observed on 10 of the 11 personality scales purported to show sex differences and on both tests of spatial ability. The 2D:4D ratio was a significant predictor of scores on three of the four aggression subscales, total aggression, thrill and adventure seeking, and total sensation-seeking, in the sample as a whole and in women. In men, correlations with 2D:4D were significant only for total sensation-seeking and verbal aggression. In both sexes, lower 2D:4D ratios were associated with increased aggressiveness and sensation seeking. For the spatial tests, there was no evidence of any association with 2D:4D in either men or women. The 2D:4D digit ratio may be a valid, though weak, predictor of selective sex-dependent traits that are sensitive to testosterone.

Various behavioral models and studies have provided evidence suggesting that male rat sexual behavior has rewarding and reinforcing properties. However, there is little information regarding the rewarding values of the different components of sexual behavior. Therefore, this study used a conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm to address whether ejaculation and intromissions differ in their rewarding incentive values. We also addressed whether the differential rewarding values were dependent on prior sexual experience. Sexually naïve and experienced males received one pairing of either intromissions or ejaculation with one of the chambers in the CPP box. The amount of time spent in each chamber of the CPP apparatus after conditioning was then measured. Both sexually naïve and sexually experienced males formed a CPP for ejaculation, while, only sexually naïve, and not sexually experienced, males formed a CPP for intromissions. Moreover, in sexually naïve males, multiple pairings of ejaculation with the designated chamber resulted in a CPP relative to the control chamber paired with display of intromissions. These data support the hypothesis that there is a hierarchy of rewarding sexual behavior, with ejaculation being the most rewarding component, and that the rewarding incentive value of other components of sexual behavior is dependent upon prior sexual experience.

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Research has shown that acute immune activation during the early postnatal period with the Gram-negative endotoxin, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), alters a variety of physiological and behavioural processes in the adult animal. For example, neonatal LPS exposure affects disease susceptibility later in life, though these effects appear to be modulated by time of exposure, sex, and immune stimulus. The current study examined sex differences in the effect of neonatal LPS treatment on the locomotor activity response to adult LPS administration. Male and female Long-Evans rats were treated systemically with either LPS (50 microg/kg) or saline (0.9%) on postnatal days 3 and 5. Later in adulthood (postnatal day 92), all animals were subjected to an adult LPS challenge and were injected (i.p.) with 200 microg/kg LPS. Two hours after injection, animals were placed in a non-novel open-field and locomotor activity was assessed for 30 min. Body weights were determined both at the time of injection and 24h later to examine LPS-induced weight loss. Adult males treated neonatally with LPS exhibited significantly less horizontal and vertical activity in response to the LPS challenge relative to males treated neonatally with saline. This effect was not observed in females. Thus, the current study provides important evidence of sexual dimorphism in the long-term effects of neonatal LPS exposure on the responses to an adult homotypic immune challenge in rats. These findings have potential clinical significance given that neonatal exposure to pathogens is a fairly common occurrence and Gram-negative bacteria are a common cause of neonatal bacterial infections.

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