ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors focus primarily on the sexual behavior of fruit flies and rodents, where the neural basis of sexual behavior has been best understood by utilizing the experimental advantages discussed earlier and by modern circuit dissection tools. They study the mechanisms that regulate mammalian sexual behavior. Just like fruit flies, the mammals studied to date mostly rodents engage in sexual and other reproductive behaviors that have a large innate component. They study the mechanisms that regulate mammalian sexual behavior. Sexually inexperienced, castrated males do not exhibit male-typical sexual behaviors, such as mounting of females and aggression toward intruder males. However, injection of testosterone into adult castrated males can restore these behaviors, indicating an activational effect of testosterone in male sexual behavior.
