Dopamine receptors in the ventral tegmental area modulate male sexual behavior in rats

The mesocorticolimbic dopamine tract is considered to be a substrate for motivation and reward as well as for locomotor behavior. The present experiments assessed the role of dopamine cell bodies in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), the source of this tract, in the copulatory behavior of male rats. The dopamine agonist apomorphine or the dopamine antagonist cis-flupenthixol were microinjected into the VTA immediately before sexual behavior tests with a receptive female. Apomorphine delayed the onset of copulation and slowed its rate, presumably by stimulating somatodendritic autoreceptors and thereby decreasing the firing rate of VTA neurons. Control injections of apomorphine into the substantia nigra were without effect. cis-Flupenthixol, which would have blocked autoreceptors and thereby depolarized VTA neurons, shortened the latency to begin copulating in those animals that did copulate; however, fewer animals exhibited sexual behavior. One possible explanation for the apparently contradictory effects of cis-flupenthixol may be that VTA neurons increased their rate of firing in some animals, leading to a faster onset of copulation, but that in other animals depolarization block in a substantial number of neurons resulted in a lack of copulation. These results are consistent with a contribution of the mesocorticolimbic dopamine tract to motivational and/or motor aspects of male copulatory behavior.