Sexual experience sensitizes mating-related nucleus accumbens dopamine responses of female Syrian hamsters

We examined the effects of prior sexual experience on extracellular concent rations of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens of female hamsters. Nucleus ac cumbens dopamine was measured by in vivo microdialysis during mating in fem ale Syrian hamsters that had previously been given six prior sexual encount ers with a male, three prior encounters, or were sexually naive. High level s of sexual behavior were observed in all three groups, which were accompan ied by increases in dialysate dopamine during periods when the male was pre sent. However, females that received six prior sexual encounters had signif icantly elevated and prolonged increases in dialysate dopamine compared wit h those of the sexually naive females or females with only three prior sexu al encounters with a male. The data indicate that the mesolimbic system can bt:sensitized by repeated experiences associated with a motivated behavior . (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.