Name Eelke Snoeren
Department of psychopharmacology
Section of Behavioural phenotyping and genomics
Function PhD-student
E-mail:
e.m.s.snoeren@uu.nl Telephone number: 030-2537383
Supervisor Prof. dr. B. Olivier
Title research female sexual dysfunctions: mechanisms and models
Summary research Female Sexual Disorders (FSD) affect a considerable percentage of women in Wsetern societies (see for review: Agmo et al. 2004a). One of the most prevalent of these disorders is 'Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (DSM-IV, 1995), characterized by 'persistently or recurrently deficient or absent sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity'. The animal research into models for sexual desire is extremely limited although some research groups seem to have started research into this area. Agmo (1999; 2003) developed a theory equating sexual incentive motivation in female rats as equivalent to sexual desire. Incentive motivation can be seen as the intensity of approach behaviors, thus the approach towards a sexual stimulus. In previous research we investigated whether hormonally primed (in behavioral estrus) female rats displayed sexual endophenotypes. We were able to show in female Wistar rats that some females had stable low incentive to visit sexually active males, whereas other either displayed moderate to very high incentives to such males. We hypothetize that the 'low motivated' females model human FSD whereas the other categories model normal to hypersexual behavior.