Oxytocin stimulates lordosis behavior in female rats.

Oxytocin, either intraperitoneally injected (200 ng/rat) or intracerebroventricularly infused (1 ng/rat in 4 microliters saline) 60 and 15 min respectively before testing, significantly increased the lordosis response to the mounting male of ovariectomized, estrogen/progesterone treated rats. The intracerebroventricular infusion of oxytocin 0.1 ng/rat had no effect; nor did saline. These results indicate that oxytocin increases female receptivity, the site of action probably being in the central nervous system.