Is Sexual Motivational State Linked to Dopamine Release in the Medial Preoptic Area?

• Published in: Behavioral neuroscience Vol. 124; no. 2; pp. 300 - 304
• Main Authors: Kleitz-Nelson, H. K, Dominguez, J. M, Cornil, C. A, Ball, G. F
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-04-2010
• Subjects: Animal; Animal Mating Behavior; Animal reproduction; Animal Sexual Behavior; Animals; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Coturnix; Coturnix japonica; Dopamine; Dopamine - metabolism; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Male; Microdialysis; Motivation - physiology; Neuroendocrinology; Neuroethology; Neurosciences; Neurosciences & behavior; Neurosciences & comportement; Ornithology; Preoptic Area - metabolism; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Quails; Rodents; Sciences sociales & comportementales, psychologie; Sexual Behavior, Animal - physiology; Social & behavioral sciences, psychology; Wildfowl; neuroendocrinology; male sexual behavior; microdialysis; birds; neuroethology; Dopamine; Central nervous system; Sexual behavior; Male; Hypothalamus; Catecholamine; Medial preoptic area; Encephalon; Vertebrata; Microdialysis; Motivation; Neurotransmitter; Aves; Release
• ISSN: 0735-7044; 1939-0084; 1939-0084
• DOI: 10.1037/a0018767

The medial preoptic area (mPOA) is a key site for the dopaminergic enhancement of male sexual behavior. Dopamine release increases in the rat mPOA with mating, supporting the critical stimulatory role played by preoptic dopamine on male sexual behavior. However, it has been questioned whether dopamine is specifically related to the occurrence of male sexual behavior and not simply involved in general arousal. To address this question, we asked whether dopamine release in the mPOA is linked to the production of male sexual behavior in Japanese quail (
Coturnix japonica
), a species that exhibits a much shorter temporal pattern of copulation than rats and does not have an intromittent organ, resulting in a very different topography of their sexual response. Extracellular samples from the mPOA of adult sexually experienced male quail were collected every 6 min before, during, and after exposure to a female using
in vivo
microdialysis and analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. Extracellular dopamine significantly increased in the presence of a female and returned to baseline after removal of the female. However, quail that failed to copulate did not display this increased release. These findings indicate that it is not solely the presence of a female that drives dopamine release in males, but how a male responds to her. Furthermore, in quail that copulated, dopamine release did not change in samples collected during periods of no copulation. Together, these findings support the hypothesis that dopamine action in the mPOA is specifically linked to sexual motivation and not only to copulatory behavior or physical arousal.