Temporal pattern of recovery from sexual satiety in male golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus)

In male rodents, copulatory activity ad lib leads to a complete inhibition of sexual behaviour performance known as sexual satiety. On the other hand, male hamsters display a peculiar copulatory pattern known as Long Intromission (LI) after being exposed to repeated mating. In this study, the characteristics of the temporal recovery of sexual behaviour after a sexual satiety test and the possible relationship between the presence of LI and the inhibition of sexual behaviour were analysed. Fifty males were exposed to repeated mating until they reached a criterion for sexual satiety. Thereafter, they were divided in several groups and retested for sexual activity after a period of 24, 48, 72, and 96 h. During the sexual satiety lest LI appeared after nine ejaculatory series, with a mean latency of 18 min. Twenty-four hours after the satiety test, all the subjects (Ss) displayed copulatory activity, and LI appeared after a mean of 2.5 ejaculations with a mean latency of 9.1 min, whereas at 48 h, only 20% of Ss displayed sexual activity. During the 72-h period, the results obtained show a clear trend towards normalisation, and finally, at 96 h, all the sexual parameters were fully restored. The data showed that there was a close relationship between sexual inhibition and the presence of LI, and demonstrated that full recovery of sexual behaviour was reached 96 h after the sexual satiety test. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.