Abstract
Sexual motivation is notably different than other motivations such as hunger and thirst, because it lacks homeostatic drive. Sexual motivation poses no threat to physical well-being; individual survival is not at stake. Nevertheless, sexual motivation is a powerful drive and is critical for species survival. Understanding the complexity of sexual motivation has the potential to advance our understanding of other motivations, even pathological motivations, such as those associated with substance abuse. The study of motivation that is unique to females has often been neglected. A number of paradigms have been developed to investigate female sexual motivation beyond measuring only the lordosis reflex. Lordosis is a reflexive posture displayed by female mammals in response to male sexual stimulation to facilitate intromission. The lordosis reflex is essential, but studying the drive to mate is compromised in the absence of robust lordosis. Therefore, appetitive measures of sexual behavior (e.g., preferences, solicitation behaviors) are more specific and more sensitive indicators of sexual motivation than lordosis alone. Paradigms designed to study female sexual motivation often provide a female subject with the choice to interact with a sexually vigorous male or either a non-sexual partner (i.e., female, castrated male) or to remain alone. The study of appetitive measures of sexual motivation has elucidated the role of hormones in female sexual motivation, as well as the underlying neural pathways. The present review describes methods for studying female rats to advance our understanding of sexual motivation and sexual dysfunction.
Highlights
Reviewed by: Alonso Fernandez-Guasti, Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV), Mexico
The present review describes methods for studying female rats to advance our understanding of sexual motivation and sexual dysfunction
Because female rats spend less time with a sexual partner under conditions that allow them to engage in paced-mating behavior, it is possible that some aspects of sexual stimulation received during paced mating may be aversive to female rats
Summary
Motivation for sex is unlike many other drives, in that sex lacks a homeostatic drive for balance. The day of proestrus is characterized by a rise in gonadal hormones (e.g., estrogen followed by progesterone) in anticipation of ovulation This period of behavioral estrus lasts approximately 24 h. Sexual motivation in most mammalian females can only be measured during a limited period of time During this time, females will display the lordosis reflex. Goal-directed sexual motivation was studied using instrumental conditioning (Everitt and Stacey, 1987; Everitt et al, 1987; Everitt and Wolf, 2002), much like early studies of drug reward. These experiments required extensive training and pairing of sexual stimuli with instrumental responses. The study of female sexual motivation has turned out to be a complicated and nuanced endeavor
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