Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Physiol Behav. 2010 Apr 19;99(5):684-6. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2010.02.003. Epub 2010 Feb 10.
In a recent study we showed that female Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) from a laboratory stock readily mated with male Turkish hamsters (M. brandti). We hypothesized that captivity and/or unconscious selection of the most receptive females by researchers or animal caretakers results in heightened female sexual receptivity and reduces the tendency to reject heterospecific males. To test this hypothesis, we decided to decrease female receptivity by injection of fluoxetine, which increases the levels of serotonin in a number of brain loci, including areas involved in mediating sexual behavior, and determine whether such a decrease in receptivity would result in better discrimination of heterospecific males and rejection of such males as mates. We treated estrous female Syrian hamsters with 20mg/kg fluoxetine or vehicle and paired them with both a conspecific and a heterospecific male (Turkish hamster) in two sequential tests. All females showed similar behavior - they exhibited lordosis toward both conspecific and heterospecific males. We did not observe any sign of aggression. Latency to display lordosis and the duration of lordosis were not affected by fluoxetine. Fluoxetine thus did not have an effect on the behavior of females toward conspecific or heterospecific males. Independent of treatment (fluoxetine or vehicle injection), females did display lordosis significantly faster and for a longer duration in the presence of a conspecific male, even though these differences were small.
在最近的一项研究中，我们表明，来自实验室种群的雌性叙利亚仓鼠（Mesocricetus auratus）很容易与雄性土耳其仓鼠（M. brandti）交配。我们假设，圈养和/或研究人员或动物饲养员无意识地选择最易受孕的雌性，导致雌性性接受度提高，并减少对异源雄性的拒绝倾向。为了验证这一假设，我们决定通过注射氟西汀来降低雌性的接受度，氟西汀会增加许多脑区的血清素水平，包括参与介导性行为的区域，并确定这种接受度的降低是否会导致更好地区分异源雄性并拒绝将其作为配偶。我们用 20mg/kg 的氟西汀或载体处理发情期的雌性叙利亚仓鼠，并在两个连续的测试中，将它们与同种和异源雄性（土耳其仓鼠）配对。所有的雌性都表现出类似的行为——它们对同种和异源雄性都表现出了屈膝反射。我们没有观察到任何攻击的迹象。氟西汀对表现出屈膝反射的潜伏期和屈膝反射的持续时间没有影响。因此，氟西汀对雌性对同种或异源雄性的行为没有影响。无论是否接受治疗（氟西汀或载体注射），雌性在有同种雄性存在的情况下，表现出屈膝反射的速度显著加快，持续时间也显著延长，尽管这些差异很小。
