Olfactory conditioning of sexual behavior in the male rat (rattus norvegicus

The role of classical conditioning in the copulatory preferences of male Long-Evans rats (Rattus norvegicus) was examined by pairing a neutral olfactory stimulus (almond odor) with female reproductive status. During training trials, the males were given access to scented or unscented females that were either sexually receptive or unreceptive. Subsequently, copula-tory preferences were tested in males given simultaneous access to 2 receptive females, 1 scented and 1 not. Males trained with scented-receptive females displayed an ejaculatory preference for the scented female. Males trained with scented-unreceptive females or with unscented-receptive females displayed an ejaculatory preference for the unscented female. Males displayed no preference when scent and reproductive status were paired randomly. These results demonstrate that classical conditioning produces an ejaculatory preference. Although associational factors have long been hypoth-esized to be important in the development and expression of sexual behavior (Beach, 1956; Larsson, 1956; McConaghy, 1987), it is only recently that progress has been made in the development of animal models to study such processes. Th