The Impact of Sexual Experience On Sexual Behavior and Neural Activation in Female Syrian Hamsters

Abstract

Natural rewards and drug reinforcement cause an increase in frequency in motivated behaviors that are aimed at obtaining different rewards. These changes in behavior are reflecting changes in neurobiology. The majority of past research examining motivated behaviors has focused on investigating how addictive drugs affect the brain’s reward pathway, particularly the prefrontal cortex – nucleus accumbens reward pathway. By understanding how the reward pathway functions to regulate the behaviors it evolved for, researchers may be able to better understand how this pathway is activated under pathological conditions and improve treatment. The present study aims to observe 1) how sex experience changes sex behavior; and 2) how sex experience affects the prefrontal cortex – nucleus accumbens reward pathway in female Syrian hamsters. The first prediction is that there will be a decrease in lordosis times and an increase in lordosis duration times across the repeated sexual experiences. The second prediction is that there will be a significant increase in the activation of neuronal projections in the prefrontal cortex – nucleus accumbens reward pathway in the sexually experienced group. The results showed no statistically significant differences in lordosis latency and duration across the seven sexual experiences. This lack of significance may have been due to an interaction between the male and females during sexual behavior that was not measured for, such as ultrasonic sounds. Due to a lack of quantifiable staining, the second hypothesis was not able to be tested. However, it will be interesting to see if there were still changes in neurobiology even though there were not changes in behaviors. By understanding how these naturally motivated behaviors activate the reward pathway, researchers may be able to better understand the neural causation of pathologies of motivation, such as addiction.