The estrous cycle is a physiological process modulated by hormonal changes associated, in turn, with alterations of the attraction or sensitivity with which females perceive different sensory stimuli. Auditory stimuli play an important role in the social interaction of several mammals, including their sexual behavior and the mother-young relationship. Since the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and nucleus accumbens (Acc) had been associated with the processing and assignation of the incentive value of stimuli, this study was designed to analyze whether electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in the PFC and Acc was modified during the two antagonist phases of the estrous cycle (proestrus-estrus and diestrus) when female rats heard sound recordings with different types of cries emitted by other rats. EEGs were recorded in eight female virgin Wistar rats, 80 -100 days old, bilaterally implanted in the PFC and Acc during an awake-quiet state, in three conditions: when hearing 1) cries of pups; 2) cries of adult male rats; and, 3) cries of adult female rats. The cries were recorded from pups (2 -10 days old) and male and female adult rats after gentle prodding by a human hand. Each auditory stimulus (which included vocalizations up to 22 kHz) was randomly played back through a speaker placed near the female rats. Only upon perceiving the cries of male rats did the females in the proestrus-estrous phase show a lower relative power in the 14 -30 Hz band in the Acc and an increased inter-prefrontal correlation in the 8 -13 Hz band. It is probable that these EEG changes are associated with the lower activation or non-anxious state that the female rat presents specifically during the proestrus-estrous phase in response to the alarm cries of adult male rats.
Ethanol affects sexual behavior drastically, as much as its execution as well as its motivation. Ethanol is a central nervous system depressant and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is one of the cortical areas most sensitive to its effects. This prefrontal area participates in the modulation of the cognitive control, and furthermore, by mean of connections with the parietal cortex (PC) plays an important role in the processing of sexually relevant stimuli. Considering that it has been reported that the ethanol affects the proper functioning of these cortical areas, particularly decreasing the degree of electroencephalographic (EEG) coupling or correlation between them, the aim of this study was to characterize the effect of a low dose of ethanol on EEG correlation, as well determining if this effect is associated with impaired sexual behavior in male rats. Nine male rats unilaterally implanted were simultaneously recorded the EEG from the PFC and PC to calculate the degree of EEG synchronization (correlation, r) between both cortices during the first 40 minutes post administration of 0.75 g/kg of ethanol. At the end of the EEG recording, the males were submitted to copulatory behavior with a receptive female rat. The ethanol administration was associated with a decreased intrahemispheric correlation of the fast bands between PFC and PC, as well as with an increased mount and intromission latency. This data showed that ethanol in moderate doses decreased the coupling degree between cortices. It is likely that this functional disconnection between the PFC and PC after the ethanol administration could be associated with the difficulty in discriminating incentive value of the sexual stimuli so that decreased the sexual motivation but not the performance of the copulatory parameters in the male rat.
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