| Title: | Sex versus sweet: opposite effects of opioid drugs on the reward of sucrose and sexual pheromones |
| Author(s): | Agustin-Pavon C; Martinez-Ricos J; Martinez-Garcia F; Lanuza E; |
| Address: | "Department of Cell Biology, Facultat de Ciencies Biologiques, Universitat de Valencia, Spain" |
| DOI: | 10.1037/0735-7044.122.2.416 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0735-7044 (Print) 0735-7044 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Endogenous opioids mediate some reward processes involving both natural (food, sweet taste) and artificial (morphine, heroin) rewards. In contrast, sexual behavior (which is also reinforcing) is generally inhibited by opioids. To establish the role of endogenous opioids for a newly described natural reinforcer, namely male sexual pheromones for female mice, we checked the effects of systemic injections of the general opioid antagonist naloxone (1-10 mg/kg) and the agonist fentanyl (0.1- 0.5 mg/kg) in a number of behavioral tests. Naloxone affected neither the innate preference for male-soiled bedding (vs. female-soiled bedding) in 2-choice tests nor the induction of place conditioning using male pheromones as rewarding stimuli, although it effectively blocked the preference for consuming a sucrose solution. In contrast, fentanyl inhibited the preference for male chemosignals without altering sucrose preference. These results suggest that, in macrosmatic animals such as rodents, opioidergic inhibition of sexual behavior might be due, at least partially, to an impaired processing of pheromonal cues and that the hedonic value of sweet-tasting solutions and sexual pheromones are under different opioid modulation" |
| Keywords: | "Animals;Animals Choice Behavior/*drug effects/physiology Conditioning, Classical/*drug effects/physiology Exploratory Behavior/drug effects/physiology Female Fentanyl/pharmacology Male Mice Naloxone/pharmacology Narcotic Antagonists/pharmacology Narcotics/pharmac;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineAgustin-Pavon, Carmen Martinez-Ricos, Joana Martinez-Garcia, Fernando Lanuza, Enrique eng Comparative Study Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2008/04/16 Behav Neurosci. 2008 Apr; 122(2):416-25. doi: 10.1037/0735-7044.122.2.416" |
