Fos expression is increased in oxytocin neurons of female rats with a sexually conditioned mate preference for an individual male rat

Cionnaith, Conall E. Mac; Lemay, Alice; Gomez‐Perales, None Eamonn L.; Robert, Geneviève; Cernik, Rebecca; Brake, Wayne G.; Pfaus, James G.

doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.104612

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…However, for CEP to be conditioned, rats must be trained with the one-hole divider [ 74 ]. Similar results were obtained in female rats [ 75 ], especially as it concerned the female’s choice of male from whom to take ejaculations. This typically imposes a greater inter-intromission interval for the male and longer return latency of the female after mounts, intromissions, and ejaculations, especially if the male puts his head into the hole to try to reach the female.…”

Section: Learning and Sexual Experiencesupporting

confidence: 78%

Behavioral, Neural, and Molecular Mechanisms of Conditioned Mate Preference: The Role of Opioids and First Experiences of Sexual Reward

Quintana

Cionnaith

Pfaus

2022

IJMS

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Although mechanisms of mate preference are thought to be relatively hard-wired, experience with appetitive and consummatory sexual reward has been shown to condition preferences for partner related cues and even objects that predict sexual reward. Here, we reviewed evidence from laboratory species and humans on sexually conditioned place, partner, and ejaculatory preferences in males and females, as well as the neurochemical, molecular, and epigenetic mechanisms putatively responsible. From a comprehensive review of the available data, we concluded that opioid transmission at μ opioid receptors forms the basis of sexual pleasure and reward, which then sensitizes dopamine, oxytocin, and vasopressin systems responsible for attention, arousal, and bonding, leading to cortical activation that creates awareness of attraction and desire. First experiences with sexual reward states follow a pattern of sexual imprinting, during which partner- and/or object-related cues become crystallized by conditioning into idiosyncratic “types” that are found sexually attractive and arousing. These mechanisms tie reward and reproduction together, blending proximate and ultimate causality in the maintenance of variability within a species.

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Section: Learning and Sexual Experiencesupporting

confidence: 78%

Behavioral, Neural, and Molecular Mechanisms of Conditioned Mate Preference: The Role of Opioids and First Experiences of Sexual Reward

Quintana

Cionnaith

Pfaus

2022

IJMS

Self Cite

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“…The ventral tegmental area is another brain area where oxytocin facilitates progesterone + estrogen—but not estrogen alone—induced lordosis, and this effect was eliminated by a selective oxytocin receptor antagonist injected into this brain area before oxytocin was [ 285 ]. Sexual behavior is also able to increase FOS expression in the oxytocinergic neurons of the medial preoptic area, ventromedial nucleus and PVN, but not the SO of female rats in either normal conditions [ 286 ], as found in male rats [ 262 ], or in the presence of a male rat that had been sexually conditioned to be a preferential mate [ 287 ]. Oxytocin concentration is also increased in the PVN dialysate of female rats primed with estrogen and progesterone during mating.…”

Section: Oxytocin and Sexual Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxytocin, Erectile Function and Sexual Behavior: Last Discoveries and Possible Advances

Melis

Argiolas

2021

IJMS

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A continuously increasing amount of research shows that oxytocin is involved in numerous central functions. Among the functions in which oxytocin is thought to be involved are those that play a role in social and sexual behaviors, and the involvement of central oxytocin in erectile function and sexual behavior was indeed one of the first to be discovered in laboratory animals in the 1980s. The first part of this review summarizes the results of studies done in laboratory animals that support a facilitatory role of oxytocin in male and female sexual behavior and reveal mechanisms through which this ancient neuropeptide participates in concert with other neurotransmitters and neuropeptides in this complex function, which is fundamental for the species reproduction. The second part summarizes the results of studies done mainly with intranasal oxytocin in men and women with the aim to translate the results found in laboratory animals to humans. Unexpectedly, the results of these studies do not appear to confirm the facilitatory role of oxytocin found in male and female sexual behavior in animals, both in men and women. Possible explanations for the failure of oxytocin to improve sexual behavior in men and women and strategies to attempt to overcome this impasse are considered.

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Sexual Conditioning

Varas,

Sáez-Rossel,

Laborda

et al. 2024

Encyclopedia of Sexual Psychology and Behavior

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Fos expression is increased in oxytocin neurons of female rats with a sexually conditioned mate preference for an individual male rat

Cited by 5 publications

References 46 publications

Behavioral, Neural, and Molecular Mechanisms of Conditioned Mate Preference: The Role of Opioids and First Experiences of Sexual Reward

Behavioral, Neural, and Molecular Mechanisms of Conditioned Mate Preference: The Role of Opioids and First Experiences of Sexual Reward

Oxytocin, Erectile Function and Sexual Behavior: Last Discoveries and Possible Advances

Sexual Conditioning

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