| Title: | Conditioned sexual arousal in a nonhuman primate |
| Author(s): | Snowdon CT; Tannenbaum PL; Schultz-Darken NJ; Ziegler TE; Ferris CF; |
| Address: | "Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, 1202 West Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53606, USA. snowdon@wisc.edu" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2010.10.009 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1095-6867 (Electronic) 0018-506X (Print) 0018-506X (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Conditioning of sexual arousal has been demonstrated in several species from fish to humans but has not been demonstrated in nonhuman primates. Controversy exists over whether nonhuman primates produce pheromones that arouse sexual behavior. Although common marmosets copulate throughout the ovarian cycle and during pregnancy, males exhibit behavioral signs of arousal, demonstrate increased neural activation of anterior hypothalamus and medial preoptic area, and have an increase in serum testosterone after exposure to odors of novel ovulating females suggestive of a sexually arousing pheromone. Males also have increased androgens prior to their mate's ovulation. However, males presented with odors of ovulating females demonstrate activation of many other brain areas associated with motivation, memory, and decision making. In this study, we demonstrate that male marmosets can be conditioned to a novel, arbitrary odor (lemon) with observation of erections, and increased exploration of the location where they previously experienced a receptive female, and increased scratching in post-conditioning test without a female present. This conditioned response was demonstrated up to a week after the end of conditioning trials, a much longer lasting effect of conditioning than reported in studies of other species. These results further suggest that odors of ovulating females are not pheromones, strictly speaking and that marmoset males may learn specific characteristics of odors of females providing a possible basis for mate identification" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Arousal/*physiology Callithrix/*physiology Conditioning, Psychological/*physiology Female Male *Odorants Penile Erection/*physiology Sex Attractants/physiology Sexual Behavior, Animal/*physiology;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineSnowdon, Charles T Tannenbaum, Pamela L Schultz-Darken, Nancy J Ziegler, Toni E Ferris, Craig F eng P51 RR000167/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ MH035215/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ R01 MH058700-01A2/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ R01 MH035215/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ P51 RR000167-47A1/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ R01 MH058700-02/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ MH058700/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ R01 MH035215-20/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ RR00167/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ P51 RR000167-48/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ R01 MH058700-03/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ R01 MH035215-22/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ P51 RR000167-46/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ R01 MH058700/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ R01 MH035215-21/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural 2010/10/30 Horm Behav. 2011 May; 59(5):696-701. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2010.10.009. Epub 2010 Oct 26" |
