Earlier in the year, we reported on Italians scientists that were studying the clubbing behavior rats on ecstasy.

At the time, we thought that Italy was the place to be if you got reincarnated as a lab rat. 

But those Italians scientists didn’t stop with giving rats ecstasy and exposing them to music at club noise levels.

Somehow, they got the funds to do additional research and this time they studied the sex lives of clubbing rats. 

And it turns out that raving rats, at least in Italy, have pretty lousy sex lives. In fact, a single dose of ecstasy, in combination with loud music, “notably impaired copulatory behavior of sexually experienced male rats”.

In fact, “combined treatment of MDMA and music stimulation did not fully restore normal sexual behavior as the animals reaching ejaculation still showed a marked reduction of copulatory efficiency.”

So, if you’re worried about your copulatory efficiency, and place any weight on scientific studies like this, you’ll want to avoid the “combined treatment of MDMA and music stimulation.”

Here’s the details of the study:

Abstract

The effects on sexual behaviour of acute low doses of methylendioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) (0.3, 1, 3 mg/kg/i.p.), alone or in combination with exposure to loud music (1 h stimulation), were investigated in Wistar rats. Results indicate that acute MDMA, at dose of 3 mg/kg, notably impaired copulatory behavior of sexually experienced male rats. 

In particular, MDMA-exposed animals exhibited a significant increase in intromission and ejaculation latencies as well as a significant decrease in percentage of rats displaying copulatory activity (one intromission at least). Surprisingly, one hour exposure to loud music, which per se resulted ineffective, antagonized the suppressive effect of MDMA by increasing the percent of animals displaying sexual activity.

However, combined treatment of MDMA and music stimulation did not fully restore normal sexual behavior as the animals reaching ejaculation still showed a marked reduction of copulatory efficiency.

These findings demonstrate that the systemic administration of a single low dose of MDMA, alone or in combination with loud music, which is commonly present in certain environments such as rave parties, notably impairs copulatory activity of male rats. 

via BoingBoing, image: pink fuzzy rat