Penile desensitization does not affect postcopulatory genital autogrooming in rats: evidence for central motor patterning.

Postcopulatory genital autogrooming was studied in rats following desensitization of the glans penis due to topical application of an anesthetic ointment or to surgical transection of the dorsal penile nerve. These treatments sharply reduced the number of mounts resulting in intromission, but genital autogrooming was largely unaffected. The probability and duration of genital grooming were sensitive to the mount bout status of the copulatory event. The probability of autogrooming was higher, and the duration longer, after mounts that ended mount bouts and after intromissions, than after mounts that were incorporated within a mount bout. These findings suggest that the apparently compulsive genital autogrooming within a copulatory context is not regulated by afferent impulses from the penis, but may largely reflect central motor programing.