Projection from the ventral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis to the retrorubral field in rats and the effects of cells in these areas on mating in male rats versus gerbils

This research identified the rat counterpart of the lateral cell group of the sexually dimorphic area (SDA) found in medial preoptic area (MPOA) gerbil of gerbils. The lateral SDA (lSDA) is critical for mating in male gerbils and contains most of the SDA cells projecting to the retrorubral field (RRF), a projection that is also important for mating. Therefore, to locate the counterpart of the lateral SDA, we traced the inputs to the rat RRF, which were dense in the ventral part of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST). To determine if the ventral BST or its projection to the RRF affects mating in male rats, we disrupted them bilaterally by placing cell-body lesions bilaterally in the ventral BST or unilaterally there and in the contralateral RRF. We also studied the effects of RRF lesions in both rats and gerbils. Bilateral ventral BST lesions, which left the medial preoptic nucleus intact, produced persistent and severe mating deficits. Disconnecting the ventral BST from the RRF also had long-lasting, but less severe, consequences. RRF lesions produced only temporary mating deficits in rats, but virtually eliminated mating in gerbils. The recovery of mating in rats after RRF, but not ventral BST, lesions, and the intermediate effects of disconnecting these areas from each other suggest that the ventral BST may contain mating-related projection neurons other than those projecting to the RRF or that its RRF-projecting cells send collaterals to another site. In either case, the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus or raphe nuclei may be involved.