The Journal of Neuroscience, January 1, 2001, 21(1):349-355
Regulation by the Medial Amygdala of Copulation and Medial
Preoptic Dopamine Release
Juan
Dominguez,
Jon V.
Riolo,
Zhujian
Xu, and
Elaine
M.
Hull
Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo,
Buffalo, New York 14260-4110
The medial preoptic area (MPOA) is a critical integrative site for
male copulatory behavior in most vertebrate species. Extracellular dopamine (DA) is increased in the MPOA of male rats immediately before
and during copulation. DA agonists microinjected into the MPOA of male
rats facilitate and DA antagonists inhibit sexual behavior. A major
source of input to the MPOA is the medial amygdala (MeA), which
processes and relays olfactory information to the MPOA. We now report
that microinjections of a DA agonist into the MPOA of animals with
excitotoxic lesions of the amygdala restored copulatory ability that
was lost after the lesions. Moreover, radio-frequency lesions of the
MeA impaired copulation and blocked the increases in extracellular DA
seen in animals with sham lesions during exposure to a receptive female
and during copulation. Thus, both copulatory ability and the MPOA DA
response, during exposure to a receptive female and during copulation,
are facilitated by input from the MeA to the MPOA.
Key words:
medial preoptic area; medial amygdala; dopamine; male rats; sexual behavior; apomorphine; microdialysis; HPLC-EC
Copyright © 2001 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/01/211349-07$05.00/0
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