Region-specific effects of copulation on dendritic spine morphology and gene expression related to spinogenesis in the medial preoptic nucleus of male rats

The medial preoptic nucleus (MPN) plays an essential role in the control of male sexual behavior. In rats, the central part of the MPN (MPNc) contains a sexually dimorphic nucleus exhibiting male-biased morphological sex differences. Although it has been suggested that the MPNc of male rats functions to induce sexual arousal, the mechanisms by which male rats are sexually aroused to successfully achieve copulation are poorly understood. We...