Analysis of the stimuli adequate to elicit mating behavior in the sexually inexperienced rat.

Abstract

This article is a thorough study of the contribution of olfaction, vision and cutaneous sensory stimulation from the snout and lips in the arousal and/or maintenance of mating behavior in the [male][male] rat. Sensory stimulation in one or more modalities was cut off by use of operative techniques. The incentive objects presented to the [male] rat were varied. The sexually inexperienced [male][male] were raised separately from 21 days of age until the beginning of the expt. The findings support the following statements: (1) neither olfaction, vision, or cutaneous sensitivity in the snout and lips is essential to the appearance or to the maintenance of copulatory behavior, (2) elimination of any one type of stimulation may result in a reduction of excitability, (3) removal of any 2 or all 3 of the modalities prevented the appearance of mating behavior in inexperienced [male][male], (4) in experienced [male][male] sex behavior continued to be manifest after the removal of any 2 of the modalities, (5) elimination of all 3 sources of sensory stimulation in experienced [male][male] prevented the appearance of copulatory behavior, (6) there are wide individual differences in the copulatory threshold and the height of this threshold is positively related to the specificity of the adequate stimulus to initial mating behavior.