ArticlePLoS biology2017
Development of rat female genital cortex and control of female puberty by sexual touch.
Article in PLoS biology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- High incidence of estrous cycle irregularities in heterogeneous stock (HS) rats is associated with footshock-resistant cocaine intake.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Decreased thickness of the individually-mapped genital cortex after childhood sexual abuse exposure in adult women.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Males but not females report genital sensations evoked by fixed-parameter stimulation of somatosensory cortex.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2025Article
- Supra-orbital whiskers act as wind-sensing antennae in rats.PLoS biology · 2023Article
- Sensory-Tactile Functional Mapping and Use-Associated Structural Variation of the Human Female Genital Representation Field.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2022Article
- Rodent Estrous Cycle Monitoring Utilizing Vaginal Lavage: No Such Thing As a Normal Cycle.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 2021Article
- Neuromodulation of maternal circuits by oxytocin.Cell and tissue research · 2019Review
- Physiological and Anatomical Outputs of Rat Genital Cortex.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Rat somatosensory cortex contains a large sexually monomorphic genital representation. Genital cortex undergoes an unusual 2-fold expansion during puberty. Here, we investigate genital cortex development and female rat sexual maturation. Ovariectomies and estradiol injections suggested sex hormones cause the pubertal genital cortex expansion but not its maintenance at adult size. Genital cortex expanded by thalamic afferents invading surrounding dysgranular cortex. Genital touch was a dominant factor driving female sexual maturation. Raising female rats in contact with adult males promoted genital cortex expansion, whereas contact to adult females or nontactile (audio-visual-olfactory) male cues did not. Genital touch imposed by human experimenters powerfully advanced female genital cortex development and sexual maturation. Long-term blocking of genital cortex by tetrodotoxin in pubescent females housed with males prevented genital cortex expansion and decelerated vaginal opening. Sex hormones, sexual experience, and neural activity shape genital cortex, which contributes to the puberty promoting effects of sexual touch.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.