Post-ejaculatory inhibition of female sexual drive via heterogeneous neuronal ensembles in the medial preoptic area.

ABSTRACT: Male ejaculation acutely suppresses sexual motivation in male mice. In contrast, relatively little is known about how male ejaculation affects sexual motivation and sexual behavior in female mice. How the brain responds to the completion of mating is also unclear. Here, by using a self-paced mating assay, we first demonstrate that female mice show decreased sexual motivation acutely after experiencing male ejaculation. By using brain-wide analysis of activity-dependent labeling, we next pin-pointed the medial preoptic area as a brain region strongly activated during the post-ejaculatory period. Furthermore, using freely moving in vivo calcium imaging to compare the neural activity of inhibitory and excitatory neurons in the medial preoptic area, we revealed that a subset of the neur

SUBMITTER: Ishii KK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11882143 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature