Male mouse sexual behavior

Sexual behavior in mammals is a deeply conserved biological process that integrates evolution, physiology, and neural control. Across species, mating unfolds through coordinated phases of approach, copulation, and post-ejaculatory inhibition, each shaped by internal state, sensory cues, social context, and ecological pressures. Rodents, in particular the rat, have long provided a tractable framework for dissecting these processes. More recently, the house mouse (Mus musculus), particularly the male, has emerged as a powerful model for mechanistic investigation, combining human-like copulatory dynamics, characterized by sustained intravaginal thrusting after penile intromission and a pronounced refractory period, with genetic accessibility and natural diversity across subspecies, enabling both circuit-level precision and evolutionary comparison. Here, we synthesize current knowledge on the neural organization of male rodent sexual behavior, with a focus on mouse studies spanning limbic, hypothalamic, brainstem, and spinal circuits that integrate olfactory, tactile, auditory, and internal state signals to shape motivation, performance, ejaculation, and the refractory period. However, most of this knowledge derives from laboratory mouse strains, which have undergone significant physiological and behavioral divergence from wild populations through domestication, suggesting that ecological context may be relevant for interpreting some experimental findings. We argue that a comparative approach, including different subspecies of mice and rats, will be essential to disentangle conserved from species-specific mechanisms. In addition, integrating more naturalistic behavioral contexts will yield a more complete understanding of how mammalian nervous systems transform sensory information and internal drives into adaptive, goal-directed sexual behavior.