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Reciprocal effects of single or repeated exposure to methylphenidate or sex in adult male rats

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Abstract

Rationale

Exposure to rewards can alter behavioral reactivity to them. For example, stimulants sensitize locomotor activation, whereas sexual experience sensitizes copulatory behaviors. Moreover, rewards can cross-sensitize one another. Although stimulants are known to cross-sensitize locomotor effects, the evidence for cross-sensitization between stimulants and sex is less clear.

Objectives

This study determined the effects of single and repeated pre-exposure to methylphenidate (MPH) or sex on one another in adult male rats.

Methods

Cross-sensitization between MPH (5 mg/kg) and sex (30 min with sexually experienced female) was examined. Adult male rats were pre-exposed to 0, 1, or 10 trials of either sex or MPH before being exposed to the other reward. Locomotor chambers were used in MPH trials. Bilevel chambers were used in sexual trials, and sexual behaviors were video scored.

Results

The amount of prior sexual experience differentially influenced the ceiling of MPH-dependent sensitization; in the last drug trial, locomotion was highest in males given 1 previous sexual trial compared with 0 or 10. Compared with MPH-naive males, pre-exposure to MPH (1 and 10 trials) reduced the number of ejaculations without impacting sexual performance (intromission/mount latency and frequency).

Conclusions

These findings indicate that the degree of pre-exposure to a reward can differentially affect reactivity to novel rewards. The results showed that previous findings of cross-sensitization between amphetamine and sex do not extend to MPH. However, exposure to MPH prior to sexual experience can increase the amount of sexual stimulation needed to achieve ejaculation.

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Data Availability

The dataset of this experiment is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Zarish Abbas trained and assisted VP in carrying out locomotor chamber trials. Steve Cabilio wrote software used to score the videotaped sexual behaviors. David Munro maintained the locomotor chamber hardware.

Funding

This study was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Discovery grants 138878 (JGP) and 249848 (AA).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Vasilios Pallikaras, Conall E. Mac Cionnaith, Vanessa C. Fernandez Rosales & Andreas Arvanitogiannis

  2. Department of Psychology and Life Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    James G. Pfaus

  3. Division of Sexual Neuroscience, Center for Sexual Health and Intervention, Czech National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic

    James G. Pfaus

Authors
  1. Vasilios Pallikaras
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  2. Conall E. Mac Cionnaith
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  3. Vanessa C. Fernandez Rosales
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  4. Andreas Arvanitogiannis
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  5. James G. Pfaus
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vasilios Pallikaras.

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Ethics approval

The authors declare that all animal procedures conformed to the guidelines of the Canadian Council for Animal Care. All procedures were approved by the Concordia University Animal Research Ethics Committee (Protocol #30000300 to JGP; Protocol #30000258 to AA).

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Andreas Arvanitogiannis and James G. Pfaus share senior authorship of the manuscript.

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Pallikaras, V., Mac Cionnaith, C.E., Rosales, V.C.F. et al. Reciprocal effects of single or repeated exposure to methylphenidate or sex in adult male rats. Psychopharmacology 240, 227–237 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-022-06300-8

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