THE EFFECT OF ABLATIONS OF NEOCORTEX ON MATING, MATERNAL BEHAVIOR AND THE PRODUCTION OF PSEUDOPREGNANCY IN THE FEMALE RAT AND ON COPULATORY ACTIVITY IN THE MALE

Abstract

After bilateral removal of the neocortex rats still have normal estrus cycles, mate, become pregnant and give birth to normal young but they show no maternal behavior. Pseudopregnancy can be elicited in the rat following bilateral ablation of the neocortex by sterile mating, glass rod and combined electrical and mechanical stimulation of the cervix and vagina. The duration of pseudopregnancy is the same as in normal rats but the phenomenon is somewhat more difficult to obtain in the decorticate animal. Ablation of the neocortex does not necessarily abolish mating behavior in the [male] although a few animals among those studied could not be induced to mate after their neocortex had been removed.