Neonatal and two-stage olfactory bulbectomy: Effects on male hamster sexual behavior

Abstract

The copulatory behavior of sexually mature male hamsters was investigated following removal of the olfactory bulbs in ways which might be expected to minimize postoperative behavioral effects. Neither two-stage bulbectomy in adults nor a one-stage operation in neonates prevented the total abolition of sexual behavior consequent to bilateral olfactory bulb removal in most of the animals. However, two bulbectomized hamsters (one, one-stage; one, two-stage) displayed an atypical persistence of mating postoperatively. Their lesions, which included total bilateral destruction of the main and accessory bulbs and damage to adjacent olfactory tissue, were histologically comparable to the lesions in two other bulbectomized hamsters (from different studies) which also copulated postoperatively. The behavior of these atypical animals supports the hypothesis that male hamsters can display normal sexual behavior in the absence of olfactory stimulation.