Sociosexual behaviors of female rats during and after chronic treatment with the sympatholytic agent guanethidine.
Ovariectomized female rats were chronically administered saline or guanethidine sulfate, a drug that blocks adrenergic neurons and, when chronically administered, results in peripheral sympathectomy. The females were periodically injected with estradiol benzoate and progesterone and tested for sexual behaviors before, during and after the six-week period of daily guanethidine or saline injections. Tests for copulatory behavior included tests for lordotic responsiveness to manual stimulation and tests of sociosexual behaviors displayed by the females in a complex testing environment. The complex environment permitted the test females to control their coital contacts with sexually active males and their interactions with sexually inactive males and ovariectomized female rats. Guanethidine treatment did not alter lordotic responsiveness to manual stimulation but did reduce the frequency of copulatory acts engaged in by the females in the complex environment. During the first test in the complex environment following the start of drug injections, the guanethidine-treated females, in comparison to saline-treated females, displayed a lower frequency of lordotic behavior during coital contacts. The changes in behavior produced by the sympathetic drug, guanethidine, implicate the autonomic nervous system in the regulation of copulatory pacing in the female rat.
D000818:Animals; D001763:Blepharoptosis / Q000139:chemically induced; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D003307:Copulation; D004958:Estradiol / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D006145:Guanethidine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010052:Ovariectomy; D011374:Progesterone / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D012919:Social Behavior
D011374:Progesterone; D004958:Estradiol; D006145:Guanethidine