Copulatory Behaviour - Anatomy & Physiology
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Mounting
- Elevation of the front legs of the male to straddle the posterior region of the female.
- Learned behaviour
Intromission
- Successful entrance of the penis into the vagina.
Ejaculation
- The reflex expulsion of spermatozoa and seminal plasma from the male reproductive tract.
- Sensory stimulation, primarily to the glans penis causes a series of coordinated muscular contractions.
- Once intromission has been achieved, reflex impulses are initiated.
- Neural impulses derived mainly from sensory nerves in the glans penis.
- Upon threshold stimulation, impulses are transmitted from the glans peinis by the internal pudendal nerve to the lumbosacral region of the spinal cord.
- Sensory impulses result in firing of nerves in the spinal cord.
- Forcing of semen into the urethra by nerves in the hypogastric plexus innervating target muscles.
- Urethralis muscle
- Ischiocavernosus muscle
- Bulbospongiosus muscle
- Emission and ejaculation
- Emission is the movement of seminal fluids from the accessory sex glands into the pelvic urethra so that they can mix with spermatozoa.
- Emission occurs before and during ejaculation.