The role of oxytocin and vasopressin in conditioned mate guarding behavior in the female rat.

We have shown previously that female rats given their first copulatory experiences with the same male rat display mate guarding behavior in the presence of that male provided a female competitor is also present. Females given access to the familiar male show more Fos induction within regions of the brain that contain oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) cell bodies, notably the supraoptic (SON) and paraventricular nuclei (PVN) relative to females given sexual experience with different males. The present experiments examined whether the Fos induction we previously observed within the SON and PVN occurred within OT and/or AVP neurons, and whether exogenous administration of OT or AVP prior to female rats first sexual experience could potentiate the acquisition of mate guarding behavior.

Conditioned mate-guarding behavior in the female rat.

Female and male rats are often described as having a promiscuous mating strategy, yet simple Pavlovian conditioning paradigms, in which a neutral odor or strain-related cues are paired with preferred sexual reward states during an animal's first sexual experiences, shift this strategy toward copulatory and mate preferences for partners bearing the familiar odor or strain cue. We examined whether female rats given exclusive rewarding copulation with one particular male would display mate-guarding behavior, a strong index of monogamous mating. Ovariectomized, hormone-primed female Long-Evans rats were given their first 10 paced sexual experiences at 4-day intervals with a particular unscented male of the same strain.