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Learning in intimate connections: Conditioned fertility and its role in sexual competition
BACKGROUND: Studies of sexual conditioning typically focus on the development of conditioned responses to a stimulus that precedes and has become associated with a sexual unconditioned stimulus (US). Such a sexually conditioned stimulus (CS) provides the opportunity for feed-forward regulation of se...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Co-Action Publishing
2012
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3960068/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24693344 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/snp.v2i0.17333 |
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author | Domjan, Michael Mahometa, Michael J. Matthews, R. Nicolle |
author_facet | Domjan, Michael Mahometa, Michael J. Matthews, R. Nicolle |
author_sort | Domjan, Michael |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Studies of sexual conditioning typically focus on the development of conditioned responses to a stimulus that precedes and has become associated with a sexual unconditioned stimulus (US). Such a sexually conditioned stimulus (CS) provides the opportunity for feed-forward regulation of sexual behavior, which improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the sexual activity. OBJECTIVE AND DESIGN: The present experiments were conducted to provide evidence of such feed-forward regulation of sexual behavior in laboratory studies with domesticated quail by measuring how many fertilized eggs were produced by the female after the sexual encounter. During the conditioning phase, male and female quail received a conditioned stimulus paired with the opportunity to copulate with each other. RESULTS: Sexual conditioning increased the number of eggs that were fertilized as a consequence of copulation, especially if both the male and the female were exposed to the sexual CS. This conditioned fertility effect occurred with a range of CS durations and CS types. The conditioned fertility effect also occurred in situations involving sexual competition. When two males copulated with the same female, DNA fingerprinting showed that the male whose sexual encounter was signaled by a sexual CS was responsible for most of the resulting offspring. Sexual conditioning also reduced the first-male disadvantage in fertilization that occurs when two males copulate with the same female separated by several hours. Another significant finding was that sexual conditioning attenuated the usual drop in fertilization rate that occurs when the same male copulates with two females in succession. CONCLUSION: These results show that sexual conditioning increases the number of offspring that are produced in both isolated male-female encounters and in situations that involve two males copulating with the same female or one male copulating with more than one female. By increasing fertilization rates, sexual conditioning can alter genetic transmission across generations and shape evolutionary change. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3960068 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2012 |
publisher | Co-Action Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-39600682014-04-01 Learning in intimate connections: Conditioned fertility and its role in sexual competition Domjan, Michael Mahometa, Michael J. Matthews, R. Nicolle Socioaffect Neurosci Psychol The Neuroscience and Evolutionary Origins of Sexual Learning BACKGROUND: Studies of sexual conditioning typically focus on the development of conditioned responses to a stimulus that precedes and has become associated with a sexual unconditioned stimulus (US). Such a sexually conditioned stimulus (CS) provides the opportunity for feed-forward regulation of sexual behavior, which improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the sexual activity. OBJECTIVE AND DESIGN: The present experiments were conducted to provide evidence of such feed-forward regulation of sexual behavior in laboratory studies with domesticated quail by measuring how many fertilized eggs were produced by the female after the sexual encounter. During the conditioning phase, male and female quail received a conditioned stimulus paired with the opportunity to copulate with each other. RESULTS: Sexual conditioning increased the number of eggs that were fertilized as a consequence of copulation, especially if both the male and the female were exposed to the sexual CS. This conditioned fertility effect occurred with a range of CS durations and CS types. The conditioned fertility effect also occurred in situations involving sexual competition. When two males copulated with the same female, DNA fingerprinting showed that the male whose sexual encounter was signaled by a sexual CS was responsible for most of the resulting offspring. Sexual conditioning also reduced the first-male disadvantage in fertilization that occurs when two males copulate with the same female separated by several hours. Another significant finding was that sexual conditioning attenuated the usual drop in fertilization rate that occurs when the same male copulates with two females in succession. CONCLUSION: These results show that sexual conditioning increases the number of offspring that are produced in both isolated male-female encounters and in situations that involve two males copulating with the same female or one male copulating with more than one female. By increasing fertilization rates, sexual conditioning can alter genetic transmission across generations and shape evolutionary change. Co-Action Publishing 2012-03-15 /pmc/articles/PMC3960068/ /pubmed/24693344 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/snp.v2i0.17333 Text en © 2012 Michael Domjan et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License, permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | The Neuroscience and Evolutionary Origins of Sexual Learning Domjan, Michael Mahometa, Michael J. Matthews, R. Nicolle Learning in intimate connections: Conditioned fertility and its role in sexual competition |
title | Learning in intimate connections: Conditioned fertility and its role in sexual competition |
title_full | Learning in intimate connections: Conditioned fertility and its role in sexual competition |
title_fullStr | Learning in intimate connections: Conditioned fertility and its role in sexual competition |
title_full_unstemmed | Learning in intimate connections: Conditioned fertility and its role in sexual competition |
title_short | Learning in intimate connections: Conditioned fertility and its role in sexual competition |
title_sort | learning in intimate connections: conditioned fertility and its role in sexual competition |
topic | The Neuroscience and Evolutionary Origins of Sexual Learning |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3960068/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24693344 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/snp.v2i0.17333 |
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