[The effect of chronic experience of victories or defeats in social conflicts upon sexual motivation in male mice].

The relevance of using the social contact test "Peregorodka" for investigation into sexual motivation in male mice, was checked and confirmed. A positive correlation was found between behavioural patterns manifested by the males near a transparent septum with holes separating them from receptive females and the males' subsequent sexual behaviour. Experience of victories as well as defeats in social conflicts was found not to interfere with occurrence of sexual motivation of the same intensity as in control animals. In the latter, however, sexual motivation was stable in time whereas in the model males its gradual decrease occurred within the 30-min test period. The findings suggest fast exhaustion of the sexual motivation in mice under conditions of prolonged social conflicts irrespective of either victories or defeats.