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Transient facilitation and inhibition of sexual reflexes in female hamsters
R G Noble1, A Attas, N T Adler
1Department of Psychology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180.
Physiology & Behavior
|January 1, 1988
Abstract:
Artificial stimuli were used to study transient changes in responsiveness of female hamsters in natural estrus to tactile stimuli occurring during mating. Tactile stimulation just lateral to the vagina produces a transient facilitation of responses to stimulation of the contralateral side, while tactile stimulation of the midline produces a short-term inhibition of lateral movement in response to tactile stimulation. These short-term changes in responsiveness are probably an integral part of the basic sexual responses of the female hamster that contribute to insertion during copulatory attempts.