Dopamine: helping males copulate for at least 200 million years: theoretical comment on Kleitz-Nelson et al. (2010).
Brain dopamine (DA) systems are implicated in a variety of behavioral responses and clinical syndromes, including sex, drug addiction, feeding, satiety, sleep, wakefulness, arousal, attention, reward, decision-making, depression, anxiety, psychosis, and movement disorders. The paper in this issue by Kleitz-Nelson, Dominguez, and Ball (2010) shows how DA release in the medial preoptic area of male quail are activated in an androgen-dependent manner during appetitive and consummatory phases of sexual behavior, similar to that reported previously in male rats. Those data suggest that the steroid-dependent role of hypothalamic DA in male sexual behavior has been conserved through evolutionary time.
Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada. jim.pfaus@concordia.ca
James G
JG
Pfaus
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D013739:Testosterone / Q000502:physiology*
D013739:Testosterone; D004298:Dopamine