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Survey of Literature: Current Literature Review, The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Volume 8, Issue 2, February 2011, Pages 341–346, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.02187.x
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Basic Science
Electrical stimulation of dorsal and ventral striatum differentially alters the copulatory behavior of male rats. G Rodríguez-Manzo, F Pellicer. Behav Neurosci 2010;124:686–94.
Editorial Comment: Sexual behavior has been associated with changes in activity in numerous brain regions. Many consider sexual behavior as rewarding and, as such, provides a positive feedback, which is essential to continued sexual behavior. Some brain areas activated with sexual behavior are also activated with other rewarding behaviors such as feeding, drinking, and with drugs such as amphetamines. One of the brain circuits involved in processing reward is the mesocorticolimbic circuit, which includes the ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, and prefrontal cortex. Cells in the caudate putamen also respond to rewarding stimuli. Dopamine is the major neurotransmitter involved in these pathways. In addition, dopamine administration enhances copulation even after sexual exhaustion in male rats. This article further examines the effect of stimulation of specific brain structures involved in reward on male rat sexual behavior. The study shows that stimulation of the nucleus accumbens facilitates sexual behavior, which was evaluated by examining the percentage of rats that ejaculated within a 30-min testing period. Rats receiving nucleus accumbens stimulation had more ejaculations within the testing period compared with controls. In contrast, stimulation of the caudate putamen during the behavioral testing decreased the percentage of animals reaching multiple ejaculations. This was thought to be due to delaying ejaculation, as the intromission latency and ejaculation latency increased in this group of animals. After sexual exhaustion, brain stimulation at both these sites was unable to produce resumption of sexual behavior. The fact that differential responses were observed from two distinct brain areas provides insight related to possible varying functions of these brain pathways in sexual behavior and reward associated with this behavior. The fact that brain manipulation could not overcome sexual exhaustion suggests that a strong post-refractory mechanism exists in different areas of the brain. Further investigations into the interaction of reward and sexual behavior may provide insight to hyperactive and hypoactive sexual desire, which largely remains untreated today.
