Amphetamine pretreatment facilitates appetitive sexual behaviors in the female rat.
BACKGROUND
Intermittent treatment of rats with psychomotor stimulants induces behavioral sensitization to their motor-stimulating effects. This sensitization involves an increase in mesolimbic and nigrostriatal dopamine release, and in male rats, facilitates sexual behavior.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of repeated injections of D-amphetamine on appetitive and consummatory sexual behaviors in female rats.


METHODS
Sexually experienced or naïve females were injected with either D-amphetamine (1 mg/kg, i.p.) or saline every other day for three injections each. After each amphetamine injection, females were placed either in a bilevel testing chamber or in their home cages. After saline injections, females were placed in bilevel chambers. Following a 3-week washout period, females were tested for sexual behavior in bilevel chambers in a drug-free state.


RESULTS
Amphetamine pre-exposure facilitated the display of solicitations, hops and darts, and female-male mounting (FMM), regardless of whether the drug was paired with the testing environment.


CONCLUSIONS
Intermittent amphetamine pretreatment that induces behavioral sensitization facilitates appetitive sexual behaviors in female rats, as has been shown previously in male rats. This suggests that the physiological substrates that modulate sensitized responses to psychomotor stimulants also mediate sensitized appetitive responses to sexual cues, including solicitation, hops and darts, and FMM. As in male rats, this facilitation was a direct consequence of amphetamine sensitization and not due to conditioned associations between drug and test environment.
Afonso
Veronica M
VM
Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, QC, Canada.
Mueller
Devin
D
Stewart
Jane
J
Pfaus
James G
JG
D000661:Amphetamine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003270:Contraceptive Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D004958:Estradiol / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D008124:Locomotion / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D013997:Time Factors
D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants; D003270:Contraceptive Agents; C074283:estradiol 3-benzoate; D004958:Estradiol; D000661:Amphetamine