Multiunit Recording of the Cerebellar Cortex, Inferior Olive, and Fastigial Nucleus During Copulation in Naive and Sexually Experienced Male Rats

The sexual behavior of male rats constitutes a natural model to study learning of motor skills at the level of the central nervous system. We previously showed that sexual behavior increases Fos expression in granule cells at lobules 6 to 9 of the vermis cerebellum. Herein, we obtained multiunit rec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cerebellum (London, England) England), 2010-03, Vol.9 (1), p.96-102
Main Authors: Garcia-Martinez, Rolando, Miquel, Marta, Garcia, Luis I., Coria-Avila, Genaro A., Perez, Cesar A., Aranda-Abreu, Gonzalo E., Toledo, Rebeca, Hernandez, Maria Elena, Manzo, Jorge
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action Potentials - physiology
Animals
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Cerebellar Cortex - physiology
Cerebellar Nuclei - physiology
Copulation - physiology
Ejaculation - physiology
Electrophysiology
Female
Learning - physiology
Male
Neurobiology
Neurology
Neurons - physiology
Neurosciences
Olivary Nucleus - physiology
Rats
Rats, Wistar
Rodents
Sexual behavior
Sexual Behavior, Animal - physiology
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Summary:The sexual behavior of male rats constitutes a natural model to study learning of motor skills at the level of the central nervous system. We previously showed that sexual behavior increases Fos expression in granule cells at lobules 6 to 9 of the vermis cerebellum. Herein, we obtained multiunit recordings of lobules 6a and 7 during the training period of naive subjects, and during consecutive ejaculations of expert males. Recordings from both lobules and the inferior olive showed that the maximum amplitude of mount, intromission, and ejaculation signals were similar, but sexual behavior during training tests produced a decrease in the amplitude for mount and intromission signals. The fastigial nucleus showed an inverse mirror-like response. Thus, the cerebellum is involved in the neural basis of sexual behavior and the learning of appropriate behavioral displays during copulation, with a wiring that involves the cerebellar cortex, inferior olive, and fastigial nucleus.
ISSN:1473-4222
1473-4230
DOI:10.1007/s12311-009-0148-y