TY - JOUR
T1 - Electrical stimulation of male monkey's midbrain elicits components of sexual behavior
AU - Okada, Eiichiro
AU - Aou, Shuji
AU - Takaki, Atsushi
AU - Oomura, Yutaka
AU - Hori, Tetsuro
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was partly supported by Grant-in-Aid (02NI~101, 63570073 S.A., 60440097, 57440085 Y.O.) from a Grant-in-Aid for the Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan. We wish to express our great appreciation to Drs. K. Koyama, I. Fujita and M. Kato for their support and helpful criticism during the course of this study, and we thank Prof. A. Simpson for comments and help in preparation of this manuscript, and also to Ms. A. Asai, Mr. K. Fukai and Mr. K. Nakamura for their technical assistance.
PY - 1991/7
Y1 - 1991/7
N2 - We electrically stimulated the midbrain of male rhesus monkeys seated in a restraint chair facing the female partners and examined whether sexual behavior could be induced. When the midbrain was stimulated (0.2 ms, 50-500 μA and 50 Hz for 2.5 s), the male monkey touched and held the waist of his partner (latency; 0.9±0.4 s, mean±SD, n=225), and then mounted her when she responded with presenting her hip toward him. However, this mounting, unlike when the hypothalamus was stimulated, did not lead to thrusting or ejaculation even if the stimulation continued. The sites in the midbrain where the stimulation elicited touching and mounting were the ventral tegmental area, the substantia nigra, the nucleus reticularis mesencephali and the nucleus reticularis pontis oralis et caudalis. Touching and mounting were not elicited when the partner was put away from the male or replaced by submissive male monkeys or humans. The findings suggest that the stimulation-evoked touching and mounting are components of copulatory behavior and that the midbrain structures may be involved in the sexual behavior of male monkeys.
AB - We electrically stimulated the midbrain of male rhesus monkeys seated in a restraint chair facing the female partners and examined whether sexual behavior could be induced. When the midbrain was stimulated (0.2 ms, 50-500 μA and 50 Hz for 2.5 s), the male monkey touched and held the waist of his partner (latency; 0.9±0.4 s, mean±SD, n=225), and then mounted her when she responded with presenting her hip toward him. However, this mounting, unlike when the hypothalamus was stimulated, did not lead to thrusting or ejaculation even if the stimulation continued. The sites in the midbrain where the stimulation elicited touching and mounting were the ventral tegmental area, the substantia nigra, the nucleus reticularis mesencephali and the nucleus reticularis pontis oralis et caudalis. Touching and mounting were not elicited when the partner was put away from the male or replaced by submissive male monkeys or humans. The findings suggest that the stimulation-evoked touching and mounting are components of copulatory behavior and that the midbrain structures may be involved in the sexual behavior of male monkeys.
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U2 - 10.1016/0031-9384(91)90525-S
DO - 10.1016/0031-9384(91)90525-S
M3 - Article
C2 - 1946721
AN - SCOPUS:0025856505
SN - 0031-9384
VL - 50
SP - 229
EP - 236
JO - Physiology and Behavior
JF - Physiology and Behavior
IS - 1
ER -