Search

Sexual desire is a complex construct with important implications for sexual functioning and well-being. In this research, we translated the Sexual Desire Inventory (SDI-2), a widely used scale for assessing sexual (desire), into 25 languages from English and used data from the International Sex Survey (ISS) to (a) investigate its psychometric properties (i.e. factorial structure, reliability, validity, and measurement invariance) and (b) explore the expression of sexual desire across different countries, genders, and sexual orientations. A total of 82,243 participants from 42 countries completed the SDI-2, along with other sexuality-related scales. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a three-factor solution for the SDI-2 (CFI = .980; RMSEA = .060), encompassing the domains of "Partner-related," "Attractive-person-related," and "Solitary" sexual desire. The reliability of the total score and subscales were excellent. Likewise, correlations with other sexuality-related variables were positive yet weak-to-moderate in effect size. Measurement invariance tests supported its use across countries, languages, genders, and sexual orientations. Analysis of SDI-2 scores according to these variables supported its ability to capture group-based differences in sexual desire. In sum, the SDI-2 constitutes a psychometrically robust measure for the assessment of sexual desire in non-clinical samples with utility in large-scale cross-cultural studies.

The largely binary nature of biological sex and its conflation with the socially constructed concept of gender has created much strife in the last few years. The notion of gender identity and its differences and similarities with sex have fostered much scientific and legal confusion and disagreement. Settling the debate can have significant repercussions for science, medicine, legislation, and people's lives. The present review addresses this debate though different levels of analysis (i.e., genetic, anatomical, physiological, behavioral, and sociocultural), and their implications and interactions. We propose a rationale where both perspectives coexist, where diversity is the default, establishing a delimitation to the conflation between sex and gender, while acknowledging their interaction. Whereas sex in humans and other mammals is a biological reality that is largely binary and based on genes, chromosomes, anatomy, and physiology, gender is a sociocultural construct that is often, but not always, concordant with a person' sex, and can span a multitude of expressions., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Model and the various psychometric instruments developed and validated based on this model are well established in clinical and research settings. However, evidence regarding the psychometric validity, reliability, and equivalence across multiple countries of residence, languages, or gender identities, including gender-diverse individuals, is lacking to date. Using data from the International Sex Survey ( N  = 82,243), confirmatory factor analyses and measurement invariance analyses were performed on the preestablished five-factor structure of the 20-item short version of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale to examine whether (a) psychometric validity and reliability and (b) psychometric equivalence hold across 34 country-of-residence-related, 22 language-related, and three gender-identity-related groups. The results of the present study extend the latter psychometric instrument's well-established relevance to 26 countries, 13 languages, and three gender identities. Most notably, psychometric validity and reliability were evidenced across nine novel translations included in the present study (i.e., Croatian, English, German, Hebrew, Korean, Macedonian, Polish, Portuguese-Portugal, and Spanish-Latin American) and psychometric equivalence was evidenced across all three gender identities included in the present study (i.e., women, men, and gender-diverse individuals)., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors declare no conflict of interest with respect to the content of this manuscript. Shane W. Kraus discloses that he has received funding from the International Center for Responsible Gaming, MGM Resorts International, Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies, Taylor Francis, Springer Nature, The Nevada Problem Gambling Project, Sports Betting Alliance, and Kindbridge Research Institute. Marc N. Potenza discloses that he has consulted for and advised Game Day Data, Addiction Policy Forum, AXA, Idorsia, Baria-Tek, and Opiant Therapeutics; been involved in a patent application involving Novartis and Yale; received research support from the Mohegan Sun Casino and the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling; consulted for or advised legal and gambling entities on issues related to impulse control and addictive behaviors; provided clinical care related to impulse-control and addictive behaviors; performed grant reviews; edited journals/journal sections; given academic lectures in grand rounds, CME events and other clinical/scientific venues; and generated books or chapters for publishers of mental health texts. The University of Gibraltar receives funding from the Gibraltar Gambling Care Foundation, an independent not-for-profit charity. The ELTE Eötvös Loránd University receives funding from Szerencsejáték Ltd. (the gambling operator of the Hungarian government) to maintain a telephone helpline service for problematic gambling. Julius Burkauskas discloses that he works as a consultant at Cronos. Roman Gabrhelík discloses that he is the shareholder of Adiquit Ltd., which is currently developing apps for addiction recovery. Vesta Steibliene discloses that she has received funding from the Lithuanian Health Promotion Fund for providing educational materials and lectures on problematic internet use.

Motivations for pornography use may vary across gender identities, sexual orientations, and geographical regions, warranting examination to promote individual and public health. The aims of this study were to validate the Pornography Use Motivations Scale (PUMS) in a diverse, multicultural sample, and develop a short form (PUMS-8) that can assess a wide range of pornography use motivations. Using data from 42 countries ( N  = 75,117; M age  = 32.07; SD age  = 12.37), enabled us to thoroughly evaluate the dimensionality, validity, and reliability of the Pornography Use Motivations Scale (PUMS), leading to the development of the more concise PUMS-8 short scale. Additionally, language-, nationality-, gender-, and sexual-orientation-based measurement invariance tests were conducted to test the comparability across groups. Both the PUMS and the PUMS-8 assess eight pornography use motivations, and both demonstrated excellent psychometric properties. Sexual Pleasure emerged as the most frequent motivation for pornography use across countries, genders, and sexual orientations, while differences were observed concerning other motivations (e.g. self-exploration was more prevalent among gender-diverse individuals than men or women). The motivational background of pornography use showed high similarity in the examined countries. Both the PUMS and the PUMS-8 are reliable and valid measurement tools to assess different types of motivations for pornography use across countries, genders, and sexual orientations. Both scales are recommended for use in research and clinical settings.

Background: The three-item Sexual Distress Scale (SDS-3) has been frequently used to assess distress related to sexuality in public health surveys and research on sexual wellbeing. However, its psychometric properties and measurement invariance across cultural, gender and sexual subgroups have not yet been examined. This multinational study aimed to validate the SDS-3 and test its psychometric properties, including measurement invariance across language, country, gender identity, and sexual orientation groups., Methods: We used global survey data from 82,243 individuals (Mean age =32.39 years; 40.3 % men, 57.0 % women, 2.8 % non-binary, and 0.6 % other genders) participating in the International Sexual Survey (ISS; https://internationalsexsurvey.org/) across 42 countries and 26 languages. Participants completed the SDS-3, as well as questions regarding sociodemographic characteristics, including gender identity and sexual orientation., Results: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported a unidimensional factor structure for the SDS-3, and multi-group CFA (MGCFA) suggested that this factor structure was invariant across countries, languages, gender identities, and sexual orientations. Cronbach's α for the unidimensional score was 0.83 (range between 0.76 and 0.89), and McDonald's ω was 0.84 (range between 0.76 and 0.90). Participants who did not experience sexual problems had significantly lower SDS-3 total scores ( M = 2.99; SD =2.54) compared to those who reported sexual problems ( M = 5.60; SD =3.00), with a large effect size (Cohen's d = 1.01 [95 % CI=-1.03, -0.98]; p < 0.001)., Conclusion: The SDS-3 has a unidimensional factor structure and appears to be valid and reliable for measuring sexual distress among individuals from different countries, gender identities, and sexual orientations., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest with the content of this manuscript. SWK discloses that he has received funding from the International Center for Responsible Gaming, MGM Resorts International, Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies, Taylor Francis, Springer Nature, The Nevada Problem Gambling Project, Sports Betting Alliance, and Kindbridge Research Institute. Dr. Potenza discloses that he has consulted for and advised Game Day Data, Addiction Policy Forum, AXA, Idorsia, Baria-Tek, and Opiant Therapeutics; been involved in a patent application involving Novartis and Yale; received research support from the Mohegan Sun Casino, Children and Screens and the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling; consulted for or advised legal and gambling entities on issues related to impulse control, internet use and addictive behaviours; performed grant reviews; edited journals/journal sections; given academic lectures in grand rounds, CME events and other clinical/scientific venues; The University of Gibraltar receives funding from the Gibraltar Gambling Care Foundation, an independent, not-for-profit charity generated books or chapters for publishers of mental health texts. The University of Gibraltar receives funding from the Gibraltar Gambling Care Foundation, an independent, not-for-profit charity. However, these funding sources are not related to this study, and the funding institution had no role in the study design or the collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data, the writing of the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication., (© 2024 The Author(s).)

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the P4 suicide screener in a multinational sample. The primary goal was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the scale and investigate its convergent validity by analyzing its correlation with depression, anxiety, and substance use., Study Design: The study design is a cross-sectional self-report study conducted across 42 countries., Methods: A cross-sectional, self-report study was conducted in 42 countries, with a total of 82,243 participants included in the final data set., Results: The study provides an overview of suicide ideation rates across 42 countries and confirms the structural validity of the P4 screener. The findings indicated that sexual and gender minority individuals exhibited higher rates of suicidal ideation. The P4 screener showed adequate reliability, convergence, and discriminant validity, and a cutoff score of 1 is recommended to identify individuals at risk of suicidal behavior., Conclusions: The study supports the reliability and validity of the P4 suicide screener across 42 diverse countries, highlighting the importance of using a cross-cultural suicide risk assessment to standardize the identification of high-risk individuals and tailoring culturally sensitive suicide prevention strategies., (Copyright © 2024 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Depression and anxiety are among the most prevalent mental health issues experienced worldwide. However, whereas cross-cultural studies utilize psychometrically valid and reliable scales, fewer can meaningfully compare these conditions across different groups. To address this gap, the current study aimed to psychometrically assess the Brief Symptomatology Index (BSI) in 42 countries., Methods: Using data from the International Sex Survey (N = 82,243; M age  = 32.39; SD age  = 12.52; women: n = 46,874; 57 %), we examined the reliability of depression and anxiety symptom scores of the BSI-18, as well as evaluated evidence of construct, invariance, and criterion-related validity in predicting clinically relevant variables across countries, languages, genders, and sexual orientations., Results: Results corroborated an invariant, two-factor structure across all groups tested, exhibiting excellent reliability estimates for both subscales. The 'caseness' criterion effectively discriminated among those at low and high risk of depression and anxiety, yielding differential effects on the clinical criteria examined., Limitations: The predictive validation was not made against a clinical diagnosis, and the full BSI-18 scale was not examined (excluding the somatization sub-dimension), limiting the validation scope of the BSI-18. Finally, the study was conducted online, mainly by advertisements through social media, ultimately skewing our sample towards women, younger, and highly educated populations., Conclusions: The results support that the BSI-12 is a valid and reliable assessment tool for assessing depression and anxiety symptoms across countries, languages, genders, and sexual orientations. Further, its caseness criterion can discriminate well between participants at high and low risk of depression and anxiety., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest JBurkauskas works as a consultant at Cronos. MNP discloses that he has consulted for and advised Game Day Data, Addiction Policy Forum, AXA, Idorsia, Baria-Tek, and Opiant Therapeutics; been involved in a patent application involving Novartis and Yale; received research support from the Mohegan Sun Casino, Children and Screens and the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling; consulted for or advised legal, gambling and non-profit entities on issues related to impulse control, internet use and addictive behaviors; conducted clinical evaluations related to impulse-control and addictive behaviors; performed grant reviews; edited journals/journal sections; given academic lectures in grand rounds, CME events and other clinical/scientific venues; and generated books or chapters for publishers of mental health texts. The views presented in this manuscript represent those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funding agencies. The rest of the authors report no conflicts of interest with respect to the content of this manuscript., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: We analyzed adult ADHD symptoms in a cross-cultural context, including investigating the occurrence and potential correlates of adult ADHD and psychometric examination of the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) Screener., Method: Our analysis is based on a large-scale research project involving 42 countries (International Sex Survey, N =72,627, 57% women, Mage =32.84; SDage =12.57)., Results: The ASRS Screener demonstrated good reliability and validity, along with partial invariance across different languages, countries, and genders. The occurrence of being at risk for adult ADHD was relatively high (21.4% for women, 18.1% for men). The highest scores were obtained in the US, Canada, and other English-speaking Western countries, with significantly lower scores among East Asian and non-English-speaking European countries. Moreover, ADHD symptom severity and occurrence were especially high among gender-diverse individuals. Significant associations between adult ADHD symptoms and age, mental and sexual health, and socioeconomic status were observed., Conclusions: Present results show significant cross-cultural variability in adult ADHD occurrence as well as highlight important factors related to adult ADHD. Moreover, the importance of further research on adult ADHD in previously understudied populations (non-Western countries) and minority groups (gender-diverse individuals) is stressed. Lastly, the present analysis is consistent with previous evidence showing low specificity of adult ADHD screening instruments and contributes to the current discussion on accurate adult ADHD screening and diagnosis., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Introduction: Despite being a widely used screening questionnaire, there is no consensus on the most appropriate measurement model for the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Furthermore, there have been limited studies on its measurement invariance across cross-cultural subgroups, genders, and sexual orientations., Aims: The present study aimed to examine the fit of different measurement models for the AUDIT and its measurement invariance across a wide range of subgroups by country, language, gender, and sexual orientation., Methods: Responses concerning past-year alcohol use from the participants of the cross-sectional International Sex Survey were considered (N = 62,943; M age : 32.73; SD = 12.59). Confirmatory factor analysis, as well as measurement invariance tests were performed for 21 countries, 14 languages, three genders, and four sexual-orientation subgroups that met the minimum sample size requirement for inclusion in these analyses., Results: A two-factor model with factors describing 'alcohol use' (items 1-3) and 'alcohol problems' (items 4-10) showed the best model fit across countries, languages, genders, and sexual orientations. For the former two, scalar and latent mean levels of invariance were reached considering different criteria. For gender and sexual orientation, a latent mean level of invariance was reached., Conclusions: In line with the two-factor model, the calculation of separate alcohol-use and alcohol-problem scores is recommended when using the AUDIT. The high levels of measurement invariance achieved for the AUDIT support its use in cross-cultural research, capable also of meaningful comparisons among genders and sexual orientations., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest with the content of this manuscript. SWK discloses that he has received funding from the International Center for Responsible Gaming, MGM Resorts International, Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies, Taylor Francis, Springer Nature, The Nevada Problem Gambling Project, Sports Betting Alliance, and Kindbridge Research Institute. Dr. Potenza discloses that he has consulted for and advised Game Day Data, Addiction Policy Forum, AXA, Idorsia, Baria-Tek, and Opiant Therapeutics; been involved in a patent application involving Novartis and Yale; received research support from the Mohegan Sun Casino and the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling; consulted for or advised legal and gambling entities on issues related to impulse control and addictive behaviors; provided clinical care related to impulse-control and addictive behaviors; performed grant reviews; edited journals/journal sections; given academic lectures in grand rounds, CME events and other clinical/scientific venues; and generated books or chapters for publishers of mental health texts. The University of Gibraltar receives funding from the Gibraltar Gambling Care Foundation, an independent, notfor-profit charity. ELTE Eötvös Loránd University receives funding from Szerencsejáték Ltd. (the gambling operator of the Hungarian government) to maintain a telephone helpline service for problematic gambling. RG is the shareholder of Adiquit Ltd. which is currently developing apps for addictions recovery. VS discloses that she received funding from Lithuanian Health Promotion Fund for providing educational materials and lectures on Problematic Internet use. Julius Burkauskas works as consultant at Cronos., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) is an instrument to screen substance-use-related health risks. However, little is known whether the ASSIST could be further shortened while remaining psychometrically sound across different countries, languages, gender identities, and sexual-orientation-based groups. The study aimed to validate a shortened 11-item ASSIST (ASSIST-11). Using the International Sex Survey data, 82,243 participants (M age  = 32.39 years) across 42 countries and 26 languages completed questions from the ASSIST-11 regarding gender identity, sexual orientation, and other information. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and multigroup CFA (MGCFA) evaluated the ASSIST-11's structure and tested measurement invariance across groups. Cronbach's α and McDonald's ω were used to examine the internal consistency. Cohen's d and independent t-tests were used to examine known-group validity. The ASSIST-11 was unidimensional across countries, languages, age groups, gender identities (i.e., men, women, and gender-diverse individuals), and sexual orientations (i.e., heterosexual and sexual minority individuals). Cronbach's α was 0.63 and McDonald's ω was 0.68 for the ASSIST-11. Known-group validity was supported by Cohen's d (range between 0.23 and 0.40) with significant differences (p-values<0.001). The ASSIST-11 is a modified instrument with a unidimensional factor structure across different languages, age groups, countries, gender identities, and sexual orientations. The low internal consistency of the ASSIST-11 might be acceptable as it assesses a broad concept (i.e., use of several different substances). Healthcare providers and researchers may use the ASSIST-11 to quickly assess substance-use information from general populations and evaluate the need to follow up with more detailed questions about substance use., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background and Aims: Despite its inclusion in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases, there is a virtual paucity of high-quality scientific evidence about compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD), especially in underrepresented and underserved populations. Therefore, we comprehensively examined CSBD across 42 countries, genders, and sexual orientations, and validated the original (CSBD-19) and short (CSBD-7) versions of the Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder Scale to provide standardized, state-of-the-art screening tools for research and clinical practice., Method: Using data from the International Sex Survey (N = 82,243; Mage = 32.39 years, SD = 12.52), we evaluated the psychometric properties of the CSBD-19 and CSBD-7 and compared CSBD across 42 countries, three genders, eight sexual orientations, and individuals with low vs. high risk of experiencing CSBD., Results: A total of 4.8% of the participants were at high risk of experiencing CSBD. Country- and gender-based differences were observed, while no sexual-orientation-based differences were present in CSBD levels. Only 14% of individuals with CSBD have ever sought treatment for this disorder, with an additional 33% not having sought treatment because of various reasons. Both versions of the scale demonstrated excellent validity and reliability., Discussion and Conclusions: This study contributes to a better understanding of CSBD in underrepresented and underserved populations and facilitates its identification in diverse populations by providing freely accessible ICD-11-based screening tools in 26 languages. The findings may also serve as a crucial building block to stimulate research into evidence-based, culturally sensitive prevention and intervention strategies for CSBD that are currently missing from the literature.

Competing Interests: The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Although mechanisms of mate preference are thought to be relatively hard-wired, experience with appetitive and consummatory sexual reward has been shown to condition preferences for partner related cues and even objects that predict sexual reward. Here, we reviewed evidence from laboratory species and humans on sexually conditioned place, partner, and ejaculatory preferences in males and females, as well as the neurochemical, molecular, and epigenetic mechanisms putatively responsible. From a comprehensive review of the available data, we concluded that opioid transmission at μ opioid receptors forms the basis of sexual pleasure and reward, which then sensitizes dopamine, oxytocin, and vasopressin systems responsible for attention, arousal, and bonding, leading to cortical activation that creates awareness of attraction and desire. First experiences with sexual reward states follow a pattern of sexual imprinting, during which partner- and/or object-related cues become crystallized by conditioning into idiosyncratic "types" that are found sexually attractive and arousing. These mechanisms tie reward and reproduction together, blending proximate and ultimate causality in the maintenance of variability within a species.

Rationale: Sexual side effects of chronic treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in humans include anorgasmia and loss of sexual desire and/or arousal which interferes with treatment compliance. There are few options at present to reduce these effects. Because orgasm and desire are mediated in part by activation of sympathetic arousal, we asked whether the sympathomimetic effects of acute caffeine treatment could reverse these effects., Objective: The present study examined whether acute treatment with caffeine (CAF; 10 or 20 mg/kg, ip) versus vehicle could ameliorate the disruption of appetitive and consummatory measures of copulatory behavior produced by chronic fluoxetine (10 mg/kg, sc) in adult, sexually active female or male rats., Methods: Sexually experienced female or male rats received daily injections of FLU over a 24-day period and were tested for sexual behaviors five times at 4-day intervals during this period in bilevel pacing chambers. Females had been ovariectomized and given hormone replacement with estradiol benzoate and progesterone prior to each test. Males were left gonadally intact. Four days after the final FLU test, rats were randomly assigned to one of the three doses of CAF and received ip injections of CAF or the saline vehicle 60 min before testing., Results: Chronic FLU reduced solicitations and lordosis over time in females and reduced the number of ejaculations in males. Both doses of CAF restored solicitations and lordosis in females and ejaculations in males. On their own, both doses of CAF increased females' pacing behavior and the number of mounts and intromissions in the males., Conclusions: Stimulation of sympathetic outflow by CAF may constitute a readily accessible on-demand treatment for the sexual side-effects of SSRIs.

It is still unclear whether Testosterone (T) increases sexual desire through a stimulation of the androgen receptor in relevant brain regions or through its conversion to estrogens. The aim of this study was to clarify the mechanisms of T facilitation of female sexual desire by assessing the effect of a non-aromatizable androgen (Dihydrotestosterone, DHT) in a validated animal model. Ovariectomized (OVX) Long-Evans rats were treated with oil (O) + O, 10 mcg Estradiol Benzoate (EB) + O, 10 mcg EB + 500 mcg Progesterone (P), O + 500 mcg DHT or 10 mcg EB + 500 mcg DHT (n = 12 per group). EB was administered 48 h, while P and DHT 4 h, prior to 4 sexual behavioral testing sessions in bisected unilevel pacing chambers. Appetitive behaviors (the frequencies of hops/darts and solicitations) were considered as the main outcome measure. Sexual receptivity indexes [lordosis magnitude, expressed as lordosis rating (LR), and lordosis quotient (LQ)], rejection responses, as well as mounts, intromissions and ejaculations received from the male were also coded. The probability of transition among sexual behaviors was evaluated by Transition Matrices; T-Pattern analysis was performed to detect hidden repeated temporal behavioral sequences. Preliminary analyses found no statistically significant differences between the O + O and EB + O groups, therefore we excluded the EB + O group from further analyses. Rats treated with EB + DHT displayed significantly more appetitive behaviors compared to negative controls (O + O and O + DHT), whereas no difference was observed between EB + DHT rats and positive controls (EB + P); noteworthy, a higher number of appetitive behaviors was observed in the O + DHT group compared to the O + O group. Furthermore, rats treated with EB + DHT showed significantly higher receptivity measures (LR and LQ) and received more mounts, intromissions and ejaculations compared to negative controls (O + O and O + DHT), to levels equivalent to EB + P. No differences were detected in female-male mounts or rejection responses among the 4 groups. Under a qualitative perspective, full solicitation was found exclusively in T-patterns of the EB + DHT group, which was also the only one to display T-patterns of higher order encompassing appetitive behaviors-only events. In conclusion, the administration of DHT in EB-primed OVX Long-Evans rats enhances sexual behavior measures. Specifically, DHT seems to stimulate sequences of appetitive behaviors separated from copulative/reproductive measures. Our data support an independent role of androgens in the facilitation of female sexual desire., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Rationale: Male rats trained to associate a neutral odor or rodent jacket on a female with their post-ejaculatory reward state display a preference to ejaculate with females bearing the odor or jacket. This conditioned ejaculatory preference (CEP) can be shifted by systemic administration of the opioid antagonist naloxone (NAL) during training, such that NAL-trained males distribute their ejaculations to females without the cue, relative to saline (SAL)-trained males., Objective: The present study examined two brain sites, the medial preoptic area (mPOA) or ventral tegmental area (VTA), where the opioid reward state might be induced., Methods: Sexually naïve Long-Evans males were implanted with bilateral guide cannula aimed at either site before they underwent multi-ejaculatory conditioning trials at 4-day intervals with sexually receptive females that bore either an almond odor or rodent tethering jacket. Infusions of NAL (1 μl/side) or SAL (1 μl/side) were made prior to each conditioning trial. All males were infused with SAL prior to a final open-field choice test with two sexually receptive females, one scented and the other unscented, or one jacketed and the other unjacketed., Results: Males previously conditioned with SAL in either region showed significant CEP. In contrast, prior infusions of NAL to the mPOA shifted the preference towards the unfamiliar female, whereas prior infusions to the VTA abolished CEP for the odor. Subsequent detection of Fos protein induced by the cue showed that, relative to SAL-treated males, prior experience with NAL in the mPOA suppressed Fos in both the mPOA and VTA, whereas prior experience with NAL in to the VTA suppressed Fos in the VTA alone., Conclusions: Opioid antagonism in the mPOA produces a state of non-reward whereas in the VTA, it produces a state in which the odor does not acquire incentive properties.

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. On the final test, each experimental male or female was placed into an open field with two sexually receptive partners, one jacketed and the other unjacketed. A trend was found for more males to ejaculate first with jacketed females relative to the unjacketed females, whereas the females had no preference. Males and females in the second study were exposed sequentially to jacketed, sexually receptive partners, and unjacketed, sexually nonreceptive partners prior to a final open field test. Both males and females displayed a significant CPC for the jacketed opposite sex partner. This study demonstrates that a somatosensory cue previously used to establish sexual arousal as a contextual cue on rats can be used as a discrete, partner-based cue to establish a CPC for a particular partner wearing the jacket and that stronger conditioning occurs when the jacket is explicitly paired with the sexual reward state. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Male rats develop a conditioned ejaculatory preference (CEP) toward females bearing an odor or somatosensory cue (rodent jacket) when those stimuli are paired with the postejaculatory reward state. As with a copulatory conditioned place preference, CEP for an odor depends on endogenous opioid transmission after ejaculation. The nonselective opioid receptor antagonist naloxone (NAL) disrupts CEP for an odor cue on female rats when injected systemically to males prior to each conditioning trial. Here, we evaluated whether NAL would disrupt the development of a CEP for the somatosensory cue. Long-Evans males were assigned randomly to two groups and underwent 14 copulatory conditioning trials for 30 min each, spaced every 4 days, and consisting of sequential pairing of a jacket on a sexually receptive female and no jacket on a sexually nonreceptive female. The control group was injected with saline (SAL) in both conditions throughout training, whereas the experimental group was injected with NAL when females were receptive and wore a jacket, and with SAL when they were not receptive and did not wear a jacket. On the final test, all males were injected with SAL and placed into an open field with two sexually receptive females, one with the jacket and the other without the jacket. Control males displayed a significant CEP for females with the jacket on, whereas males injected with NAL during sexually receptive jacket conditions displayed a significant CEP for the nonjacketed female. This study confirms that opioid transmission is necessary for the establishment of a somatosensory CEP. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Fifty-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are emitted by adult rats during appetitive phases of behavior in response to stimuli thought to be associated with a positive affective state. In particular, 50-kHz USVs with rapid frequency oscillations, known as trills and flat-trills, in which these oscillations are flanked by a monotonic portion, are together positively correlated with appetitive behaviors such as rough and tumble play, drug and natural reward, and mating. Female rats produce 50-kHz USVs during a variety of sexual contexts, yet data are still vague as female sexual behavior is seldom studied on its own. Distributed clitoral stimulation (CLS) offers a unique approach to investigating female 50-kHz USVs as it mimics stimulation received during mating. Although CLS induces a sexual reward state, it is unknown whether CLS elicits trills and flat-trills. We addressed this question using eight ovariectomized rats, we investigated whether ovarian hormones augmented these call subtypes in response to CLS. The combined and separate effects of estradiol benzoate (EB) and progesterone (P), and oil vehicle were assessed through comparison of these call subtypes between CLS and inter-CLS interval. We found that CLS with EB + P significantly increased call duration and rate, lowered peak frequency, and widened the bandwidth of trills. Flat-trills showed a similar pattern except for call duration. Call distribution during the CLS and inter-CLS interval suggest that trill and flat-trills may be indicative of both anticipatory and sexual reward., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

We have shown previously that male rats develop a conditioned ejaculatory preference (CEP) for females scented with a neutral odor like almond or lemon that is paired with the male's post-ejaculatory reward state during their first and subsequent early sexual experiences. However, preexposing males to the neutral odor alone prior to its pairing with sexual reward results in latent inhibition. Here, we examined the phenomenon of unconditioned stimulus (US) preexposure, in which male rats were preexposed to the ejaculatory reward state either one or five times with scented (ScF) versus unscented (UnScF) females prior to multiple ejaculatory trials with females in the opposite condition (e.g., ScF preexposure received 10 subsequent ejaculatory trials with UnScF, whereas UnScF preexposure received 10 subsequent ejaculatory trials with ScF). As before, mate and partner preference was evaluated in an open field where each male had access to two females, one ScF and the other UnScF. Males that underwent five trials of preexposure did not display a CEP for either female. Conversely, males preexposed once to a ScF, and later trained with UnScF developed a preference for the latter, whereas males preexposed once to the UnScF, and then trained with ScF did not show a preference for any of the females. Subsequent exposure to the odor cue alone revealed different patterns of brain activation in areas related to sexual behavior that depended on the animal's group membership. Altogether, these findings demonstrate the pivotal role of first sexual experiences in the establishment of future sexual partner preference in the male rat, and suggest an innate preference for estrous odors over neutral odors that can become conditioned subsequently as predictors of sexual reward., (© 2018 Quintana et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.)

Early experiences with sexual reward play a pivotal role in the formation of sexual behavior and partner preference. Associations of salient partner cues, or even neutral cues on a partner, with sexual reward states are a product of Pavlovian learning. However, the extent to which first experiences that associate a neutral stimulus with no immediate consequence, and how that association may affect subsequent associability after being paired with a sexual reward state after copulation to ejaculation, remains unclear. To address this question, sexually naïve males were preexposed over one or five trials to almond scented gauze pads prior to training during which half of the males were trained 10 times with scented receptive females, and the other half with unscented receptive females. A final test of partner preference was conducted in a large open field containing two sexually receptive females, one scented and the other unscented. Males developed a conditioned ejaculatory preference for the type of female they were trained with, except when they were preexposed five times to the odor and then trained with females bearing the same odor, indicating a significant CS preexposure effect. One CS preexposure was not sufficient to inhibit subsequent conditioning. Exposure to the scent before perfusion for inmunohistochemistry, revealed different patterns of brain activation in brain areas previously associated with the development of partner preference, like the medial preoptic area, ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, basolateral amygdala, among others, depending on group membership. Thus, CS preexposure results in a subsequent impairment of the association that links the odor cue to sexual reward and preference. This highlights the impact of the first sexual experiences in future partner preference., (© 2018 Quintana et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.)

Background: The nature of a woman's orgasm has been a source of scientific, political, and cultural debate for over a century. Since the Victorian era, the pendulum has swung from the vagina to the clitoris, and to some extent back again, with the current debate stuck over whether internal sensory structures exist in the vagina that could account for orgasms based largely on their stimulation, or whether stimulation of the external glans clitoris is always necessary for orgasm., Method: We review the history of the clitoral versus vaginal orgasm debate as it has evolved with conflicting ideas and data from psychiatry and psychoanalysis, epidemiology, evolutionary theory, feminist political theory, physiology, and finally neuroscience., Results: A new synthesis is presented that acknowledges the enormous potential women have to experience orgasms from one or more sources of sensory input, including the external clitoral glans, internal region around the "G-spot" that corresponds to the internal clitoral bulbs, the cervix, as well as sensory stimulation of non-genital areas such as the nipples., Conclusions: With experience, stimulation of one or all of these triggering zones are integrated into a "whole" set of sensory inputs, movements, body positions, autonomic arousal, and partner- and contextual-related cues, that reliably induces pleasure and orgasm during masturbation and copulation. The process of integration is iterative and can change across the lifespan with new experiences of orgasm., Competing Interests: and funding The authors have not received any funding or benefits from industry or elsewhere to conduct this study.

Background: Although humans experience orgasms with a degree of statistical regularity, they remain among the most enigmatic of sexual responses; difficult to define and even more difficult to study empirically. The question of whether animals experience orgasms is hampered by similar lack of definition and the additional necessity of making inferences from behavioral responses., Method: Here we define three behavioral criteria, based on dimensions of the subjective experience of human orgasms described by Mah and Binik, to infer orgasm-like responses (OLRs) in other species: 1) physiological criteria that include pelvic floor and anal muscle contractions that stimulate seminal emission and/or ejaculation in the male, or that stimulate uterine and cervical contractions in the female; 2) short-term behavioral changes that reflect immediate awareness of a pleasurable hedonic reward state during copulation; and 3) long-term behavioral changes that depend on the reward state induced by the OLR, including sexual satiety, the strengthening of patterns of sexual arousal and desire in subsequent copulations, and the generation of conditioned place and partner preferences for contextual and partner-related cues associated with the reward state. We then examine whether physiological and behavioral data from observations of male and female rats during copulation, and in sexually-conditioned place- and partner-preference paradigms, are consistent with these criteria., Results: Both male and female rats display behavioral patterns consistent with OLRs., Conclusions: The ability to infer OLRs in rats offers new possibilities to study the phenomenon in neurobiological and molecular detail, and to provide both comparative and translational perspectives that would be useful for both basic and clinical research., Competing Interests: and funding The authors have not received any funding or benefits from industry or elsewhere to conduct this study.

Compound generalization and dimensional generalization are traditionally studied independently by different groups of researchers, who have proposed separate theories to explain results from each area. A recent extension of Shepard's rational theory of dimensional generalization allows an explanation of data from both areas within a single framework. However, the conceptualization of dimensional integrality in this theory (the direction hypothesis) is different from that favored by Shepard in his original theory (the correlation hypothesis). Here, we report two experiments that test differential predictions of these two notions of integrality. Each experiment takes a design from compound generalization and translates it into a design for dimensional generalization by replacing discrete stimulus components with dimensional values. Experiment 1 showed that an effect analogous to summation is found in dimensional generalization with separable dimensions, but the opposite effect is found with integral dimensions. Experiment 2 showed that the analogue of a biconditional discrimination is solved faster when stimuli vary in integral dimensions than when stimuli vary in separable dimensions. These results, which are analogous to more "non-linear" processing with integral than with separable dimensions, were predicted by the direction hypothesis, but not by the correlation hypothesis. This confirms the assumptions of the unified rational theory of stimulus generalization and reveals interesting links between compound and dimensional generalization phenomena., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In an experiment we examined whether the repeated presentation of tones of gradually increasing intensities produces greater decrement in the eyeblink reflex response in humans than the repetition of tones of constant intensities. Two groups of participants matched for their initial level of response were exposed to 110 tones of 100-ms duration. For the participants in the incremental group, the tones increased from 60- to 90- dB in 3-dB steps, whereas participants in the constant group received the tones at a fixed 90-dB intensity. The results indicated that the level of response in the last block of 10 trials, in which both groups received 90-dB tones, was significantly lower in the incremental group than in the constant group. These findings support the data presented by Davis and Wagner (7) with the acoustic response in rats, but differ from several reports with autonomic responses in humans, where the advantage of the incremental condition has not been observed unambiguously. The discussion analyzes theoretical approaches to this phenomenon and the possible involvement of separate neural circuits.