ArticleNature communications2025
A galanin-positive population of lumbar spinal cord neurons modulates sexual arousal and copulatory behavior in male mice.
Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Deep Cellular and Spatial Profiling of the Mouse Spinal Cord Reveals Sex-Specific Neuron Types and the Ascending Projection Neuron Repertoire.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
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- Myomatrix arrays for high-definition muscle recording.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Krause corpuscles of the genitalia are vibrotactile sensors required for normal sexual behavior.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
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Abstract
During sex, male arousal builds to the ejaculatory threshold, allowing genital sensory input to trigger ejaculation. While copulation and arousal are thought to be brain-regulated, ejaculation is a reflex controlled by a spinal circuit. In this framework, the spinal cord is assumed to be strongly inhibited by descending input until the ejaculatory threshold, playing no role in the regulation of copulatory behavior. However, this remains untested. Here we mapped the spinal circuit controlling the bulbospongiosus muscle, essential for sperm expulsion in mice. Our findings show that bulbospongiosus muscle-motor neurons receive input from galanin-expressing neurons, which integrate genital sensory signals. Stimulating these neurons induces bulbospongiosus activity, but responses vary with spinalization, internal state, and decrease with repeated stimulation. Ablating galanin-positive neurons altered ejaculation latency and copulatory patterns. These results suggest that spinal circuits influence not only ejaculation but also copulation and arousal, challenging the traditional view of spinal control in copulation.
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