Central nervous system neurons identified after injection of pseudorabies virus into the rat clitoris

doi:10.1016/0304-3940(95)11495-I

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 190, Issue 1, 28 April 1995, Pages 41-44

https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3940(95)11495-I Get rights and content

Abstract

Transneuronal tracing techniques were used to identify putative spinal and brain neurons involved in the efferent control of the clitoris. Pseudorabies virus was injected into the rat clitoris and virus-labeled neurons were identified immunohistochemically. Neurons were found primarily in L5-S1 segments of the spinal cord. In addition, virus-labeled cells were found in T12-L4 and S2-S4. In the brain, virus-labeled cells were found in the nucleus paragigantocellularis, raphe pallidus, raphe magnus, Barrington's nucleus, ventrolateral central gray, hypothalamus and medial pre-optic region. These data identify a multisynaptic circuit of neurons which may be involved in clitoral control.

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Cited by (68)

Sexual disorders post-stroke: Description of a cohort of patients followed in rehabilitation
2024, French Journal of Urology
The impairments resulting from a stroke can be multiple, including urinary and/or sexual dysfunctions. This acquired brain injury disrupts neurological control of sexual responses. Main objective: to describe sexual disorders, after a first episode of stroke, in a population followed in a physical medicine and rehabilitation (PMR) center. Secondary objectives: to gather patients’ expectations and PMR physicians’ opinions on this subject.
Observational, retrospective study in two PRM centers. Post-stroke sexuality was assessed using two validated questionnaires [for men: International Index of Erectile Function 15 (IIEF15) and for women: Female Sexual function Index (FSFI)]. Patients were asked 3 questions to approximate their expectations, and PRM physicians were asked 2 questions for their opinions.
Twenty-four subjects included (17 men/7 women). Thirteen had no post-stroke sexuality. Erectile function was analysable in 4 subjects, 3 of whom had moderate to severe erectile dysfunction. In women, female sexual dysfunction concerned 6/7 women, including lubrication. Ninety-six percent of subjects had never discussed sexuality with their PRM physician. Only 33% would have liked information on this subject. Our PRM physicians rarely discuss post-stroke sexual disability.
Post-stroke sexual disorders occur in both sexes. All areas of sexuality may be affected. A large-scale, prospective, controlled, multicenter study is needed to establish stroke as the direct neurological cause of sexual impairment.
Level 4.
Les déficiences résultantes d’un accident vasculaire cérébral (AVC) peuvent être multiples incluant les dysfonctions vésico-sphinctériennes et/ou sexuelles. Cette lésion cérébrale acquise, perturbe le contrôle neurologique des réactions sexuelles. Objectif principal : décrire les troubles sexuels, après un premier épisode d’AVC, dans une population suivie en centre de médecine physique et réadaptation (MPR). Objectifs secondaires : recueillir l’attente des patients et l’avis des médecins MPR sur ce sujet.
Étude observationnelle, rétrospective sur deux centres de MPR. La sexualité post-AVC a été évaluée avec deux questionnaires validés (chez l’homme : International Index of Erectile Fonction 15 [IIEF15] et chez la femme : Female Sexual Function Index [FSFI]). Trois questions ont été posées aux patients pour approcher leur attente et 2 questions aux médecins MPR pour avoir leurs avis.
Vingt-quatre sujets inclus (17 hommes/7 femmes). Treize n’ont pas de sexualité post-AVC. La fonction érectile était analysable chez 4 sujets dont 3 présentaient une dysfonction érectile modérée à sévère. Chez les femmes, La dysfonction sexuelle féminine intéressait 6 femmes/7 dont la lubrification. Quatre-vingt-seize pour cent des sujets n’ont jamais abordé le sujet de la sexualité avec le médecin MPR. Seulement 33 % d’entre eux auraient souhaité avoir des informations à ce sujet. Nos médecins MPR abordent très peu le handicap sexuel post-AVC.
Les troubles sexuels post-AVC existent dans les deux sexes. Tous les domaines de la sexualité peuvent être touchés. Intérêt de réaliser une étude prospective, contrôlée et multicentrique à plus grande échelle pour imputer l’AVC comme cause neurologique directe de l’altération de la sexualité.
Niveau 4.
Hormone-dependent sexual responses of female mice in response to manual genital stimulation
2023, Hormones and Behavior
Although copulatory behavior is thought to have a strong innate basis in mice, there is also clear evidence that sexual experience shapes its expression. Reinforcement of behavior through rewarding genital tactile stimulation is a primary candidate mechanism for this modification. In rats, manual tactile clitoral stimulation is rewarding only when it is temporally distributed, which is hypothesized to result from an innate preference for species-typical copulatory patterning. Here we test this hypothesis using mice, which have a temporal copulatory pattern which is distinctly less temporally distributed than that of rats. Female mice received manual clitoral stimulation which was either temporally continuous every second, or stimulation which was temporally distributed, occurring every 5 s, This pattern of stimulation was paired with environmental cues in a conditioned place preference apparatus to assess reward. Neural activation in response to this stimulation was evaluated by measuring FOS immunoreactivity. Results indicated that both temporal patterns of clitoral stimulation were rewarding, but that continuous stimulation better reproduced brain activation associated with sexual reward. Furthermore, continuous, but not distributed stimulation elicited a lordosis response in some females, and this response increased within and across days. Sexual reward, neural activation and lordosis resulting from tactile genital stimulation were eliminated by ovariectomy and restored with combined 17β-estradiol and progesterone treatment but not 17β-estradiol treatment alone. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that sexual reward resulting from species-typical genital tactile stimulation has a permissive effect on copulatory behavior of female mice.
Transneuronal tracing to map connectivity in injured and transplanted spinal networks
2022, Experimental Neurology
It has become widely appreciated that the spinal cord has significant neuroplastic potential, is not hard-wired, and that with traumatic injury and anatomical plasticity, the networks that we once understood now comprise a new anatomy. Harnessing advances in neuroanatomical tracing to map the neuronal networks of the intact and injured spinal cord has been crucial to elucidating this new spinal cord anatomy. Many new techniques have been developed to identify these networks using a variety of retrograde and anterograde tracers. One method of tracing that has become more widely used to map anatomical changes is transneuronal tracing. Viral tracers are being increasingly used to map spinal networks, leading to an advanced understanding of spinal circuitry and host-donor-host interactions between the injured spinal cord and neural transplants. This review will highlight advances in neuronal tracing, specifically using pseudorabies virus (PRV), and its use in the intact, injured, and transplanted spinal cord.
Effects of ovarian hormones on the emission of 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations during distributed clitoral stimulation in the rat
2019, Hormones and Behavior
Citation Excerpt :
The size and hemodynamic function of the vagina and clitoris decrease after OVX, and increase with subsequent estradiol treatment (Comeglio et al. 2016; Korenchevsky and Hall 1937). If clitoral sensitivity is altered accordingly, then it follows that brain activation by CLS (e.g., Marson 1995; Parada et al. 2010) should be altered following different hormone priming regimens or across the estrous cycle. However, it is not yet known if a similar pattern of CLS-specific vocalizations occurs in gonadally-intact females during proestrus.
Fifty-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are emitted by adult rats during appetitive phases of behavior in response to stimuli thought to be associated with a positive affective state. In particular, 50-kHz USVs with rapid frequency oscillations, known as trills and flat-trills, in which these oscillations are flanked by a monotonic portion, are together positively correlated with appetitive behaviors such as rough and tumble play, drug and natural reward, and mating. Female rats produce 50-kHz USVs during a variety of sexual contexts, yet data are still vague as female sexual behavior is seldom studied on its own. Distributed clitoral stimulation (CLS) offers a unique approach to investigating female 50-kHz USVs as it mimics stimulation received during mating. Although CLS induces a sexual reward state, it is unknown whether CLS elicits trills and flat-trills. We addressed this question using eight ovariectomized rats, we investigated whether ovarian hormones augmented these call subtypes in response to CLS. The combined and separate effects of estradiol benzoate (EB) and progesterone (P), and oil vehicle were assessed through comparison of these call subtypes between CLS and inter-CLS interval. We found that CLS with EB + P significantly increased call duration and rate, lowered peak frequency, and widened the bandwidth of trills. Flat-trills showed a similar pattern except for call duration. Call distribution during the CLS and inter-CLS interval suggest that trill and flat-trills may be indicative of both anticipatory and sexual reward.
The role of oxytocin in male and female reproductive behavior
2015, European Journal of Pharmacology
Oxytocin (OT) is a nonapeptide with an impressive variety of physiological functions. Among them, the ‘prosocial’ effects have been discussed in several recent reviews, but the direct effects on male and female sexual behavior did receive much less attention so far. As our contribution to honor the lifelong interest of Berend Olivier in the control mechanisms of sexual behavior, we decided to explore the role of OT in the present review. In the successive sections, some physiological mechanisms and the ‘pair-bonding’ effects of OT will be discussed, followed by sections about desire, female appetitive and copulatory behavior, including lordosis and orgasm. At the male side, the effects on erection and ejaculation are reviewed, followed by a section about ‘premature ejaculation’ and a possible role of OT in its treatment. In addition to OT, serotonin receives some attention as one of the main mechanisms controlling the effects of OT. In the succeeding sections, the importance of OT for ‘the fruits of labor’ is discussed, as it plays an important role in both maternal and paternal behavior. Finally, we pay attention to an intriguing brain area, the ventrolateral part of the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMHvl), apparently functioning in both sexual and aggressive behavior, which are at first view completely opposite behavioral systems.
Female Sexual Behavior
2015, Knobil and Neill's Physiology of Reproduction: Two-Volume Set
This chapter reviews the current state of knowledge concerning the neurobiology of female sexual behavior, including sexual arousal, appetitive desire, pacing of sexual stimulation, the receptive postures that allow vaginal penetration to occur, and the inhibitory or refractory states induced by sexual stimulation, sexual nonreward, and/or the steroid hormone milieu. Data from a variety of species, including humans, is discussed at several levels of analysis that link neuroendocrinology, neuropharmacology, and molecular biology. The context in which sexual behavior occurs, especially during an animal's first sexual experiences, is considered in terms of culture and experimental conditioning, processes that alter neuronal responses, and ultimately behavior in the presence of external sexual incentive cues that predict sexual pleasure or nonreward. New vistas for further research are discussed.

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Central nervous system neurons identified after injection of pseudorabies virus into the rat clitoris

Abstract

J. Auton. Nerv. Sys.

Exp. Neurol.

Brain Res.

Neuroscience

Neurosci. Lett.

J. Urol.

J. Urol.

Brain Res.

Neuronal responses to stimulation of the cervix, uterus, colon and skin in the rat spinal cord

J. Neurophysiol.

The midbrain periaqueductal grey matter. Functional, anatomical and neurochemical organization

Clitoral responses to central nervous stimulation in dogs

Int. J. Impotence. Res.