Arendash G W, Gorski R A
Brain Res Bull. 1983 Jan;10(1):147-54. doi: 10.1016/0361-9230(83)90086-2.
The sexually dimorphic nucleus of the rat medial preoptic area (SDN-POA) has a volume five times larger in the adult male compared with that of the adult female. In the present study, the effects of discrete electrolytic destruction of the SDN-POA or other specific medial preoptic (MPOA) regions on masculine sexual behavior were determined in adult, sexually experienced male rats. Small lesions encompassing the SDN-POA had no effect on the maintenance of copulatory behavior. Lesions of similar size placed within the ventral or anterio-dorsal MPOA also did not consistently affect the display of masculine sexual behavior. However, animals that received small lesions within their dorsal MPOA showed a substantial, long-term decrease in number of mounts, intromissions, and ejaculations compared to these parameters in sham-lesioned control rats, thus indicating a lesion-induced disruption of those neural mechanisms mediating these behaviors. Collectively these data suggest that the SDN-POA is not critical for a full expression of male sexual behavior and that the dorsal MPOA may be more important than other MPOA regions for copulatory behavior.
大鼠内侧视前区的性二态核（SDN-POA）在成年雄性中的体积比成年雌性大五倍。在本研究中，我们确定了在成年、有性经验的雄性大鼠中，对SDN-POA或其他特定内侧视前区（MPOA）区域进行离散电解损伤对雄性性行为的影响。包含SDN-POA的小损伤对交配行为的维持没有影响。在腹侧或前背侧MPOA内放置的类似大小的损伤也没有持续影响雄性性行为的表现。然而，与假损伤对照大鼠相比，在背侧MPOA内接受小损伤的动物在骑跨、插入和射精次数上出现了显著的长期减少，这表明损伤导致了介导这些行为的神经机制的破坏。总体而言，这些数据表明SDN-POA对于雄性性行为的充分表达并非至关重要，并且背侧MPOA对于交配行为可能比其他MPOA区域更重要。
