Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

The role of ventral bundle noradrenergic neurones in sensory components of sexual behaviour and coitus-induced pseudopregnancy

Abstract

Interaction of the female rat with the male in standardized laboratory conditions is characterized by two categories of behaviour. The first, known as proceptive behaviour, consists of a series of rapid movements by which she approaches and leaves the male, hopping and darting and wiggling her ears1. This behaviour, which is a response to visual, olfactory, and probably auditory cues from the male, serves to attract his sexual interest. As soon as the male mounts her, this behaviour is abruptly terminated and is replaced by a second (receptive) pattern1. The female becomes completely immobile and dorsiflexes her vertebral column to display a lordotic posture, which exposes her vagina and facilitates intromission by the male; this pattern results from tactile stimulation received by the female from the male as he mounts her2,3. Both these behaviours are under endocrine control since the female rat will only show them if she is exposed to the ovarian hormones oestradiol and progesterone4. However, proceptivity and receptivity clearly differ with regard to the neural mechanisms responsible for their activation, since different groups of afferent stimuli are required to set them in motion. We now show that a specific part of the ascending systems of noradrenergic neurones in the brain, that is carried in the ventral noradrenergic bundle5, is critically involved in the mechanisms by which tactile stimuli elicit receptive, but not proceptive, behaviour in the female rat. The same system is also involved in the process by which genital stimuli activate another neuroendocrine phenomenon, the induction of pseudopregnancy.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Beach, F. A. Horm. Behav. 7, 105–138 (1976).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Pfaff, D. W. & Lewis, C. Horm. Behav. 5, 317–335 (1974).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Kow, L. M. & Pfaff, D. W. Brain Res. 101, 47–66 (1976).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Hansen, S. & Sodersten, P. J. Endocr. 77, 373–379 (1978).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Ungerstedt, U. Acta physiol. scand. Suppl. 367, 1–48 (1971).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Bloom, F. E. J. neural Transmission 37, 183–187 (1975).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Smith, M. S., McLean, B. K. & Neill, J. D. Endocrinology 98, 1370–1377 (1976).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Castro-Vasquez, A. & McCann, S. M. Neuroendocrinology 28, 3–10 (1979).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Kow, L. M., Montgomery, M. O. & Pfaff, D. W. Brain Res. 123, 75–88 (1977).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Zemlan, F. P., Leonard, C. M., Kow, L. M. & Pfaff, D. W. Expl Neurol. 62, 298–334 (1978).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Heritage, A. S., Evant, L. D. & Stumpf, W. E. J. comp. Neurol. 176, 607–630.

  12. Caggiula, A. R., Antelman, S. M., Chiodo, L. A. & Lineberry, C. G. in Catecholamines: Basic and Clinical Frontiers Vol. II (eds Udsin, E., Kopin, I. J. & Barchas, J.) (Pergamon, Oxford, 1979).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Yen, S. S. C. in Reproductive Endocrinology (eds Yen, S. S. C. & Jaffe, R. B.) 152–170 (Saunders, Baltimore, 1978).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Everitt, B. J., Fuxe, K., Hokfelt, T. & Jonsson, G. J. comp. Physiol. Psychol. 89, 556–572 (1975).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Konig, J. F. R. & Klippel, R. A. The Rat Brain: A Stereotaxic Atlas of the Forebrain and Lower Parts of the Brain Stem (Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 1963).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Lidbrink, P., Jonsson, G. & Fuxe, K. Neuropharmacology 10, 521–536 (1971).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Jonsson, G. & Sachs, Ch. J. Pharm. exp. Ther. 180, 625–635 (1972).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hansen, S., Stanfield, E. & Everitt, B. The role of ventral bundle noradrenergic neurones in sensory components of sexual behaviour and coitus-induced pseudopregnancy. Nature 286, 152–154 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/286152a0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/286152a0

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing