Central Mechanisms:
estrogen acts to stimulate copulation--mounts, intromissions and ejaculations
- aromatization is important for this process!
MPOA plays an important role the effects of estrogen:
- sexually dimorphic area of the preoptic area (SDA-POA): sexual learning
- dorsal MPOA: critical for stimulation of mounts, intromissions and ejaculations
- dopaminergic inputs--activating mounts, intromissions and ejaculations
amygdala plays an important role in facilitating sex behavior--the amygdala attributes “salience” to cues associated with sex behavior
- corticomedial amygdala--pheromones to activate behavior
- basolateral amygdala--learned responses (e.g., bar pressing to gain access to female)
dopaminergic inputs into the nucleus accumbens--sexual motivation
dopaminergic inputs into the striatum--general locomotion (e.g., chasing female)