Hypothalamic knife cuts that disrupt mating in male gerbils sever efferents and forebrain afferents of the sexually dimorphic area.
The sexually dimorphic area (SDA) of the gerbil hypothalamus is essential for male sexual behavior. To determine (a) if the SDA can affect mating via laterally projecting axons and (b) which SDA afferents might affect mating, male gerbils were given bilateral, parasagittal knife cuts lateral to the medial or lateral SDA. Others were given cuts with a knife coated with horseradish peroxidase to label cells of which axons were cut. Medial cuts eliminated mating and consistently labeled cells in the medial SDA. Lateral cuts did neither. Medial cuts also labeled more cells in the ventral part of the lateral septal nucleus, the encapsulated part of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, the medial nucleus of the amygdala, the amygdalohippocampal area, and the ventral premammillary nucleus than lateral cuts did. Thus, medial cuts may disrupt mating by severing SDA efferents or by severing SDA afferents from 1 or more of these 5 sites.