Conditioned partner preference in male and female rats for a somatosensory cue.

Male and female rats form a conditioned preference to copulate and/or mate with conspecifics bearing an odor that was paired with either the postejaculatory reward state in males, or paced sexual contact in females, making the odor act as a discrete partner-related cue. Here, we asked whether a somatosensory cue, a rodent jacket, could act as a discrete cue to establish a conditioned partner choice (CPC). In the first study, sexually naïve Long-Evans males and females underwent 14 copulatory conditioning trials for 30 min with their opposite sex partner in unilevel pacing chambers.