Records of anxiety and copulatory behaviors of Swiss male mice

Seven monandrous copulatory tests (one every week) were scheduled for each male, starting one week after the last session of the elevated plus maze testing. The test started by introducing the male to the arena, allowing him to explore it for 5 minutes before introducing the receptive female. The test chronometry began upon introducing the female to the arena. The test ended when the male achieved ejaculation or after 1800 seconds (30 minutes) had passed since the introduction of the female. It was agreed that mice that exceeded this limit would be assigned an ejaculatory latency of 1802 seconds. Each copulatory session was assessed by an experienced observer who recorded the latencies of ejaculation (EL), mount (ML), and intromission (IL). The mean EL, ML, and IL per mouse were estimated by averaging the corresponding values obtained in each copulatory test and then over seven tests. The observer also recorded the total number of mounts (MN), intromissions (IN), and ejaculations (EN) achieved in seven copulatory encounters.