Flow of potassium ions in brain cells is key to sexual arousal
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 - 14:21
in Biology & Nature
When it comes to sex, a female rat knows how to avoid a communication breakdown. To announce her sexual readiness, she will automatically arch her back, deflect her tail and stand rigid to allow an aroused male to mount. Now, Rockefeller University researchers have figured out the precise chemical and physical mechanism in a group of brain cells that controls this swayback posture, a reflex called lordosis that signals one of life`s most complex yet primitive instincts — the need for sex.