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A tactile receptive field which releases the motor pattern of lordosis, enlarged and sensitized by estrogen. Several recent studies have shown that both the size and the sensitivity of the receptive field of the pudendal nerve, which carries tactile releasing stimuli for the lordosis motor pattern in female rats, are increased by treatment of ovariectomized females with estrogen {Komisaruk et a1, 1972; Kow and Pfaff, 1973). This effect is apparently important under natural conditions, since the sensory field is larger in sexually receptive rats during natural estrus than in unreceptive females that are not in estrus (Adler et a1, 1977). It is possible that there may be an analogous effect of androgen upon the receptive fields for releasing stimuli of male sex reflexes, but relevant experiments have not been done (Hart, 1978). It is known that the sensitive epidermal papillae of the penis are reduced in size in the male rat following castration (Beach and Levinson, 1950).
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