Measuring sexual behavior has become a prominent feature in behavioral pharmacology. The reason for this is not only an increasing focus on sexual health and wellbeing. The emergence of increasingly specific psycho-pharmacological drugs has opened the door to far more direct studies of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the expression of sexual behavior.

Most of the present knowledge on this topic has been obtained from studying male subjects. Implicitly, researchers have assumed equality between the sexes with regard to biological mechanisms, as well as to the interpretation of the parameters of sexual behavior. However, growing evidence points to the possibility that sexual drive in the female rat differs from that of the male.

Different methods have been applied in the quest to elucidate female rat sexual behavior, the relevance of which will be discussed. For example, what are we actually measuring when we quantify the degree of lordosis shown by the female rat upon mounting or intromission by the male? What is the connection between lordosis behavior and the inner state of sexual excitement?

The discussion will focus on the need to change the way we interpret female rat sexual behavior. Furthermore, suggestions will be put forward in an attempt to revise the current paradigm in sexual behavioral research.

Paper presented at Measuring Behavior 2002 , 4^th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research, 27-30 August 2002, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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