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Southwestern > Romi Burks Home > About Dr. Burks
Professor Fay Guarraci
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Southwestern University
Based on research that I conducted at Dartmouth College with my mentor Ann S. Clark, Psychology and Animal Behavior majors at Southwestern and I have been further investigating the neural mechanisms controlling paced mating behavior in female rats. Paced mating behavior can be observed in a chamber that separates the male from the female but allows the female to visit the male for sexual stimulation at her desired interval. Paced mating behavior is only observed in females that are sexually receptive and depends on confining the male to his compartment. This laboratory protocol is meant to mimic how rats mate in the wild. More specifically, females approach and retreat from potential mates who visit the female's burrow. In the lab, we typically observed paced mating behavior in one female as she mates with one male. We have been interested in understanding how different drugs that affect dopamine and serotonin alter paced mating behavior and other measures of female motivation. For example, students have studied how drugs such as fluoxetine and clomipramine (common anti-depressants) disrupt sexual motivation in females rats. Furthermore, we have extending our previous research on dopaminergic drugs, such as amphetamine, and have started to identify locations in the brain where these drugs might be working to affect paced mating behavior.
Fay and Romi Burks
Most recently, we have been using a Multiple Mate Paced Mating Paradigm, whereby females can choose between two potential mates and mate with them both simultaneously, to better understand mate selection and how typical measures of paced mating behavior may be related to mate preferences. Finally, to understand if mate selection has adaptive significance, students -- with the help of Dr. Foote in Biochemistry, have been investigating if mate preferences translate into increases in fecundity by examining paternity of offspring fathered by Preferred Mates and NON-Preferred Mates.
Fay and Jennifer Lovell (SU '05)
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