Effects of pre- and postpubertal social experience on sexual and social behavior in male and female brown lemmings (Lemmus sibiricus).

Abstract

The effects of prepubertal social contact and postpubertal mating experience on sexual behavior were examined in male and female brown lemmings (Lemmus sibiricus). Subjects of both sexes were either isolated at weaning (18 days) or then housed with siblings for another 10 days before being isolated. Before testing for sexual behavior at the age of 75 days, half of each group of males received a series of exposures to estrous females and half of each group of females was housed with a stud male. The results of mating tests indicated that whereas prior sexual experience facilitated subsequent copulatory behavior in both sexes, prepubertal interactions subsequently facilitated contact social and sexual behavior in males but did not increase the behavioral scores of females, which engaged in high levels of sexual behavior regardless of prepubertal experience. The effect of prior copulatory activity on male sexual performance could not be attributed to increasing age (i.e., maturational processes) because the behavior of males tested once but at different ages did not differ appreciably. Prepubertal social interaction appeared to predispose males to benefit from sexual experience later in life.