Male mice mate desire is male or female is determined by the levels of serotonin in the brain, scientists report a new study. Find shows for the first time that the neurotransmitter regulates sexual mammals.
Serotonin is known to regulate sexual behavior, such as erection, ejaculation and orgasm in mice and men. The compound tends to reduce sexual activity, for example, antidepressants that increase the amount of serotonin in the brain can decrease libido. [10 Aphrodisiacs]
Neuroscientist Yi Rao of Peking University and National Institute for Biological Sciences in Beijing, and colleagues have shown that serotonin has also led to the decision of a male courting a woman or another man. They published their findings in the March 24 edition of the journal Nature.
Rao and his team genetically male mice and the lack of serotonin-producing nerve cells or proteins, it is important to serotonin in the brain. Both the mouse could not serotonin.
Unlike the typical male, showed deficient mice neurotransmitter no desire to mount sexually receptive females more than men, even preferring to smell the female genitalia or litter. Instead, they climbed men and serenaded with love songs ultrasound more often than usual. The males emit these vocalizations when they encounter women to make them more receptive to mating.
While all the men who had mounted the first women serotonin, nearly half of the mice that lacked serotonin crawled on men before women, and about 60 percent have spent more time sniffing or hovering above genital odors and litter men and women.
When the researchers injected a compound in these mice to restore the levels of neurotransmitters, they found that animals mounted more women than men. But too much serotonin between men and women reduce assembly, suggesting that the amount of this chemical should remain within certain limits to promote heterosexual rather than homosexual behavior.
"The inevitable question whether our results [serotonin] is a function of sexual or other animals," the authors wrote the paper. But one of the co-authors, neuroscientists, Zhou-Feng Chen Washington University, warned against hasty conclusions about the potential effect of this neurotransmitter on human rights and sexual orientation.
Elaine Hull, an expert on the sexual behavior of rodents at Florida State University, who did not participate in the study, said the findings "may influence homosexuality or bisexual behavior in humans," adding that the neurotransmitter could help to guide sexual development.
However, Chen says he feels overinterpreting results.
"Many people who read more than she can or can not be justified," said Hull LiveScience. "Further information is needed to clarify the brain areas affected and possible developmental regulation of serotonin in these areas before we can proceed to the conclusion that serotonin is the factor that inhibits male attraction to men. "
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