Studies of instrumental behavior with sexual reinforcement in male rats (Rattus norvegicus): II. Effects of preoptic area lesions, castration, and testosterone.

Everitt, Barry J.; Stacey, Pamela

doi:10.1037/0735-7036.101.4.407

Cited by 195 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…The medial SDA in gerbils has long been considered to be homologous to the medial part of the rat MPN, consistent with the fact that cell-body lesions of the rat MPN eliminate mounting behavior [66,74,90]. The SDA pars compacta, a sexually differentiated smaller group of cells located within the medial SDA that is organized by sex steroids during ontogeny, would then be equivalent to the rat SDN-POA [69,156].…”

Section: The Preoptic Neuronal Circuit Controlling Male Sexual Behavimentioning

confidence: 79%

“…In contrast, it was found that lesions to the basolateral amygdala inhibit noncontact erections and the ability of males to acquire learned responses that are rewarded with access to females [67,68,90]. These observations lead to the idea of a double dissociation between brain areas mediating copulatory behavior on the one hand (the mPOA) and appetitive sexual behavior / sexual arousal / sexual motivation on another hand (amygdala, bed nucleus striae terminalis; see [66][67][68]). This notion was also supported by a number of pharmacological studies that revealed selective effects on consummatory sexual behavior of manipulations of the preoptic opioid system but left relatively intact measures of appetitive sexual behavior (see [68] for a review).…”

Section: The Medial Preoptic Area Is Also Implicated In the Control Omentioning

confidence: 99%

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Topography in the preoptic region: Differential regulation of appetitive and consummatory male sexual behaviors

Balthazart

Ball

2007

Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology

191

168

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Several studies have suggested dissociations between neural circuits underlying the expression of appetitive (i.e. sexual motivation) and consummatory components (i.e., copulatory behavior) of vertebrate male sexual behavior. The medial preoptic area (mPOA) clearly controls the expression of male copulation but, according to a number of experiments, is not necessarily implicated in the expression of appetitive sexual behavior. In rats for example, lesions to the mPOA eliminate maletypical copulatory behavior but have more subtle or no obvious effects on measures of sexual motivation. Rats with such lesions still pursue and attempt to mount females. They also acquire and perform learned instrumental responses to gain access to females. However, recent lesions studies and measures of the expression of the immediate early gene c-fos demonstrate that, in quail, subregions of the mPOA, in particular of its sexually dimorphic component the medial preoptic nucleus, can be specifically linked with either the expression of appetitive or consummatory sexual behavior. In particular more rostral regions can be linked to appetitive components while more caudal regions are involved in consummatory behavior. This functional sub-region variation is associated with neurochemical and hodological specializations (i.e. differences in chemical phenotype of the cells or in their connectivity), especially those related to the actions of androgens in relation to the activation of male sexual behavior, that are also present in rodents and other species. It could thus reflect general principles about POA organization and function in the vertebrate brain.

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Section: The Preoptic Neuronal Circuit Controlling Male Sexual Behavimentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: The Medial Preoptic Area Is Also Implicated In the Control Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Topography in the preoptic region: Differential regulation of appetitive and consummatory male sexual behaviors

Balthazart

Ball

2007

Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology

191

168

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…VT or VP in fact exert a broad range of effects on a variety of social behaviors in all classes of vertebrates (66,67). However, huge interspecific variation exists in the types of behaviors that are affected by VT/VP and in the direction of the observed effects.…”

Section: Behavioral Effects Of Vasotocin In Birdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The parvocellular vasotocin system of Japanese quail: a developmental and adult model for the study of influences of gonadal hormones on sexually differentiated and behaviorally relevant neural circuits.

Panzica

Balthazart

Pessatti³

et al. 2002

Environ Health Perspect

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Vasotocin (VT; the antidiuretic hormone of birds) is synthesized by diencephalic magnocellular neurons projecting to the neurohypophysis. A sexually dimorphic system of VT-immunoreactive (ir) parvocellular elements has been described within the male medial preoptic nucleus (POM) and the nucleus of the stria terminalis, pars medialis (BSTm). VT-ir fibers are present in many diencephalic and extradiencephalic locations, and quantitative morphometric analyses demonstrated their sexually dimorphic distribution in regions involved in the control of different aspects of reproduction. Moreover, systemic or intracerebroventricular injections of VT markedly inhibit the expression of some aspects of male sexual behavior. In adult animals, circulating levels of testosterone (T) have a profound influence on the VT immunoreactivity within BSTm, POM, and lateral septum. Castration markedly decreases the immunoreaction, whereas T-replacement therapy restores a situation similar to the intact birds. We observed no changes in gonadectomized females treated with T. These changes parallel similar changes in male copulatory behavior (not present in castrated male quail, fully expressed in castrated, T-treated males). The restoration by T of the VT immunoreactivity in castrated male quail could be fully mimicked by a treatment with estradiol (E(2)), suggesting that the aromatization of T into E(2) may play a key limiting role in both the activation of male sexual behavior and the induction of VT synthesis. This dimorphism has an organizational nature: administration of E(2) to quail embryos (a treatment that abolishes male sexual behavior) results in a dramatic decrease of the VT immunoreactivity in sexually dimorphic regions. Conversely, the inhibition of E(2) synthesis during embryonic life (a treatment that stimulates the expression of male copulatory behavior in treated females exposed in adulthood to T) results in a malelike distribution of VT immunoreactivity. The VT parvocellular system of the Japanese quail can therefore be considered an accurate marker of the sexual differentiation of brain circuits mediating copulatory behavior and could be a very sensitive indicator of the activity of estrogenlike substances on neural circuits.

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“…Typically, lesion-induced deficits in males' mating performance have not been accompanied by reduced sexual arousal. Thus, male rats with medial POA/AH lesions continued to approach and climb over an oestrous female (105) and continued to lever press on a second order reinforcement schedule in order to obtain access to an oestrous female, even though they failed to mate with that female once she was physically present (106). In light of the critical role of the medial pOA/AH in controlling motoric aspects of coital performance, it has been disappointing to find that localized lesions of sexually dimorphic structures in the medial POA/AH exert relatively minor effects on sexual behaviour.…”

Section: Functional Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Steroidal Control of Behavioural, Neuroendocrine and Brain Sexual Differentiation: Studies in a Carnivore, the Ferret

Baum

Carroll

Cherrv

et al. 1990

J Neuroendocrinology

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More than 30 years have passed since the publication ( I ) showing that transplacental administration of testosterone to female guinea-pigs caused permanent changes in their ability to exhibit reproductive behaviours in response to ovarian steroids in adulthood. Over the intervening years articles have appeared which have extended this type of observation to numerous other mammalian species, including rat, hamster, gerbil, mouse, dog, ferret, pig, sheep, rhesus monkey, and marmoset (2, 3). In many instances inferences have been made about the probable existence of steroid-induced changes in the structure and function of the nervous system which underlie these changes in behaviour. These so-called 'organizational' effects of perinatal steroid exposure on the developing nervous system are often distinguished from the later 'activational' effects of these same steroids on the expression of sociosexual behaviours in adulthood. The number of different mammalian species used for mechanistic studies on the organizational effects of steroids, such as determining the precise perinatal timing of hormone action, the identity of the steroid(s) responsible for behavioural sexual differentiation, and the neural sites of steroid action, has been relatively small, and generally restricted to rodents. In the late 1970's sex steroids acting during development were first implicated in the differentiation of sexually dimorphic telencephalic structures in passerine song birds which control singing associated with courtship (4, 5). Since this early work, numerous studies have exploited the canary and zebra finch to explore mechanisms of steroid action in controlling the ontogeny of song in the male and the underlying changes in the nervous system. Other studies using the rat have explored in detail the role of androgen and oestrogen in controlling the differentiation in males of patterns of reproductive behaviour (2) as well as aspects of neural sex dimorphisms in the preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus (POA/AH) (6) and in the lumbar spinal cord (7). The concentration of mechanistic (behavioural, biochemical, neuroanatomical) studies of steroidal effects on sexually dimorphic behavioural potential in a few avian and rodent species is understandable, in light of their relative availability, low expense, and rapid time-course of neural development.Despite the substantial progress already made using these lower vertebrate models in promoting our understanding of how sex steroids influence neural and behavioural development, extrapolation of the results obtained in these studies to higher mammals including man cannot occur in the absence of some degree of empirical verification. Obviously, experimental manipulations of steroidal exposure during the development of human subjects would be unethical, thus we are left with experiments of nature (e.g. congenital adreno-genital syndrome,androgen insensitivity syndrome, and Sa-reductase deficient pseudohermaphroditism; details in later sections) with which to ask questions about the role of sex...

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Studies of instrumental behavior with sexual reinforcement in male rats (Rattus norvegicus): II. Effects of preoptic area lesions, castration, and testosterone.

Cited by 195 publications

References 72 publications

Topography in the preoptic region: Differential regulation of appetitive and consummatory male sexual behaviors

Topography in the preoptic region: Differential regulation of appetitive and consummatory male sexual behaviors

The parvocellular vasotocin system of Japanese quail: a developmental and adult model for the study of influences of gonadal hormones on sexually differentiated and behaviorally relevant neural circuits.

Steroidal Control of Behavioural, Neuroendocrine and Brain Sexual Differentiation: Studies in a Carnivore, the Ferret

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