Role of Context, Arousal, and Female Availability in the Conditioning of Sexual Behavior and Ejaculatory Preference in the Male Rat

Role of Context, Arousal, and Female Availability, in the Conditioning of Sexual Behavior and Ejaculatory Preference in the male rat Nafissa Ismail, PhD Concordia University, 2008 Although male rats are known to display greater unconditional sexual arousal and mating preference to copulate with a novel female compared to a familiar one, research has shown that males given repeated copulatory trials in bi-level chambers with a random almond-scented female develop a conditioned ejaculatory preference (CEP) for females bearing this odor cue. These findings suggest that male rats can learn to associate cues with sexual reward and display preferences for partners that bear those familiar cues. Examination of the effect of copulation in pacing chambers bisected by a divider that either had one hole or four holes at the bottom that only allowed the female to cross, revealed that in 1 -hole pacing chambers, females spend more time away from the male than in 4-hoIe pacing chambers. Males copulating in 1-hole pacing chambers displayed longer ejaculation latencies than those in the 4-hole condition. Interestingly, when animals were changed environments, the differences in ejaculation latencies were maintained suggesting that the pattern of copulation in these males had become conditioned by their initial environment of copulation. An examination of the preferred environment of copulation showed that males prefer to copulate in 4-hole over 1 -hole pacing chambers perhaps because males can achieve their optimal rates of copulation in 4-hole chambers. However, contrary to what would be expected, males trained to copulate in 4-hole pacing chambers, with the same almond-scented female at every trial,