Effects of sexual experience on sexual motivation in copulatory behavior in male rats

摘要

The effects of sexual experience on the behavior of one-year-old male Wistar rats in conditions excluding direct interaction and in conditions of direct contact with potential sexual and social partners were studied. Interest in a social partner on the other side of a partition was most strongly demonstrated by sexually experienced males, while sexually naive males showed the greatest interest in conditions of direct contact. All males showed maximum activity levels in the presence of a receptive female. Sexual experience in males had no effect on the motivational component of male sexual behavior, i.e. sexual excitation: the levels of sexual motivation in the presence of a receptive female were identical in sexually naive and experienced male rats. However, sexual experience produced fundamental changes in the nature of the consumatory stage of male sexual behavior on interaction with a receptive female, significantly increasing its expression. There were increases in measures of copulatory behavior such as the numbers of mountings and intromissions while the latent periods of their appearance decreased. There was also an increase in the proportion of males demonstrating elements of copulatory behavior in relation to partners of predominantly social significance.