Abstract
Background. There is a growing consensus that similar neural mechanisms are involved in the reinforcing properties of natural rewards, like food and sex, and drugs of abuse. Rat lines selectively bred for high and low oral alcohol intake and preference have been useful for understanding factors contributing to excessive alcohol intake and may constitute proper animal models for investigating the neurobiological basis of natural rewarding stimuli.Methods. The present study evaluated copulatory behavior in alcohol and sexually naïve Sardinian alcohol-preferring (sP) and -nonpreferring (sNP) male rats in three consecutive copulatory behavior tests.Results. The main finding was that, under the conditions used in this study, sNP rats were sexually inactive relative to sP rats. To gain more information about the sexual behavior in sP rats, Wistar rats were included as an external reference strain. Only minor differences between sP and Wistar rats were revealed.Conclusions. The reason behind the low copulatory activity of sNP rats remains to be elucidated, but may in part be mediated by innate differences in brain transmitter systems. The comparison between sP and Wistar rats may also suggest that the inherent proclivity to excessive alcohol drinking in sP rats may mainly be dependent on its anxiolytic properties, as previously proposed, and not changes in the reward system.
Highlights
There is a growing consensus that similar mechanisms are involved in the reinforcing properties of natural rewards, like food and sex, and drugs of abuse [1,2,3,4,5]
The mesocorticolimbic dopamine system with cell bodies in the ventral tegmental area and projections to areas including the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, and the prefrontal cortex is highly conserved in evolution, a natural constituent of vital life sustaining behaviors [6], and a key component in reward and addiction processes [2,3,7]
Fewer sNP than Sardinian alcohol-preferring (sP) rats engaged in copulatory behavior in all three tests
Summary
There is a growing consensus that similar mechanisms are involved in the reinforcing properties of natural rewards, like food and sex, and drugs of abuse [1,2,3,4,5]. It is well acknowledged that sexual activity [8] and intake of palatable food [9] and drugs of abuse including alcohol [10] result in elevated levels of extracellular dopamine in areas associated with the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system, including the nucleus accumbens. Natural and sexual selection processes are likely to be involved in the development of appetitive and consummatory activity with some key neuronal trajectories shared between species. There is a growing consensus that similar neural mechanisms are involved in the reinforcing properties of natural rewards, like food and sex, and drugs of abuse. The comparison between sP and Wistar rats may suggest that the inherent proclivity to excessive alcohol drinking in sP rats may mainly be dependent on its anxiolytic properties, as previously proposed, and not changes in the reward system
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