Sexual interaction in adult laboratory rats: importance of female's stimuli and of male's experience.
Precopulatory behaviour of adult male rats towards the passively receptive and towards the ovariectomized females was observed in dyadic interaction, first, at the time when the males were sexually inexperienced and later on after they had gained small and uniform copulatory experience (with a darting female). It was found that precopulatory activity of the sexually inexperienced males towards the ovariectomized female was "higher and richer" than that of males exposed to the passively receptive female. When the males were sexually experienced the frequency of precopulatory behavior increased and the patterns changed only in the animals exposed to the passively receptive female. Precopulatory activity of males weakened during the interaction under all experimental conditions. It is remarkable, however, that the weakening of precopulatory activity of sexually inexperienced males exposed to the ovariectomized female was reinforced again after the female temporarily exhibited behaviour typical of the male. We concluded that both the quality of the female's precopulatory behaviour and the quantity of previous male's experience are the decisive factors in successful interaction.
D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000494:pharmacology; D008297:Male; D010052:Ovariectomy; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones