Project description
Brain control of sexual behaviour
Sex is central for species preservation and involves a series of somatomotor and behavioural responses that eventually lead to a consummatory act: ejaculation. Emerging evidence implicates the medial preoptic area of the anterior hypothalamus in both the appetitive phase of sexual behaviour that involves female pursuit and the consummatory phase. The aim of the EU-funded MPOA project is to delineate how male sexual arousal and copulatory performance are encoded in the brain. Researchers will investigate the downstream neural circuitry and provide fundamental information on how the brain controls sexual behaviour. Since sexual motivation and performance can be disrupted in patients with depression and other diseases, project results may unveil targets for intervening in sexual dysfunction.
Objective
Sexual behavior patterns are unique among the behavioral repertoire of animals. Sex serves no survival advantage for the individual per se, but is vital for species preservation. To this end, evolution has hedonically biased animals to engage in behaviors that culminate in the conspecific transfer of genetic material. Male sexual behavior is characterized by distinct phases in this behavioral action sequence leading up to ejaculation. Lesions of the medial preoptic area (MPOA), an anterior extension of the hypothalamus, in rodents have been shown to eliminate both reward-seeking, or appetitive (female pursuit and anogenital investigation), and reward-consuming, or consummatory (mounting, intromissions, and ejaculation), male sexual behaviors. Furthermore, focal lesion studies and physiological evidence suggests the presence of separate populations within the MPOA mediating the control of these two phases, and behavioral evidence points to the idea that the performance of appetitive and consummatory behaviors are reciprocally related. However, the mechanistic role of the MPOA in controlling downstream circuitry facilitating male sexual arousal, copulation, and the interaction of these dimensions of behavior has not been explored. This proposal aims to understand how male sexual arousal and copulatory performance are encoded in the brain, utilizing activity-dependent genetic labeling approaches, in vivo calcium imaging, causal optogenetic manipulation of neuronal subpopulations, and genetic-based tracing methods. The project will be the first to mechanistically address how the brain provides descending control over male arousal and ejaculation, exposing potential central mechanisms that could be acted on for the treatment of sexual dysfunction.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-RI - RI – Reintegration panelCoordinator
1400-038 Lisboa
Portugal