Effects of neonatal handling and maternal separation on rough‐and‐tumble play in the rat

Arnold, Jennifer; Siviy, Stephen M.

doi:10.1002/dev.10069

Cited by 49 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Food and water continued to be freely available and the 12-hour light/dark cycle was maintained. A recent paper from our laboratory reported that this separation protocol of 6 hours per day for 10 days during Postnatal Days 2-13 resulted in behavioral hyperactivity/impulsivity in adolescent male SpragueDawley rats [6], a phenotype which is consistent with other similar studies [2,5,16,35]. We used the same separation procedures in this study to verify that maternal separation increases ambulatory behavior in the novel open field test [6].…”

supporting

confidence: 69%

Juvenile male rats display lower cortical metabolic capacity than females

Spivey

Colorado

Conejo

et al. 2008

Neuroscience Letters

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The juvenile brain undergoes marked maturational changes accompanied by major sex hormone changes. In particular, sex differences in neural substrates could underlie male-specific dysfunction in behavioral responses related to the prefrontal cortex. Sex differences in regional metabolic capacity of the cerebral cortex were investigated in juvenile Sprague-Dawley rats. At 6 weeks of age the brains were processed for quantitative histochemistry of cytochrome oxidase, a rate-limiting enzyme in cellular respiration, which is an index of brain metabolic capacity. Quantitative image analysis revealed a main effect of sex with males displaying lower regional metabolic capacity than females in the dorsolateral and orbital prefrontal cortex and in the posterior parietal cortex. In addition, males separated for 6 h/day from their mothers as pups showed greater ambulatory behavior in the novel open field and higher metabolism in the posterior parietal cortex relative to males separated for 15 min/day. This is the first study to show sex differences in brain metabolic capacity in regions such as the prefrontal cortex that may be hypometabolic in juvenile males relative to females.

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supporting

confidence: 69%

Juvenile male rats display lower cortical metabolic capacity than females

Spivey

Colorado

Conejo

et al. 2008

Neuroscience Letters

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“…In a similar way, rat pups, weaned earlier by mothers that were food restricted or pregnant during lactation, showed play-fighting behaviors more frequently than those reared and normally weaned by mothers that were given food ad libitum (Smith, 1991). On the other hand, another study showed that brief daily handling or longer periods of separation from mother during the first 2 weeks of life did not affect levels of playfulness in juvenile rats (Arnold & Siviy, 2002). These conflicting results indicate that the effects of early environmental manipulations on play behavior vary depending on differences of experimental designs and species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Early weaning decreases play‐fighting behavior during the postweaning developmental period of wistar rats

Shimozuru

Kodama

Iwasa

et al. 2007

Developmental Psychobiology

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We examined the influence of early weaning on the development of play-fighting behaviors and anxiety status in Wistar rats. Pups were divided into two groups, those weaned at postnatal day (PD) 16 (early-weaned group) and those weaned at PD30 (normally weaned group), and were housed in pairs of the same sex. Playful interactions were measured for each pair once a week from 4 to 7 weeks of age. Thereafter, during early adulthood, all the rats were subjected to the elevated plus-maze test. The frequencies of pinning and playful attack were less in the early-weaned group than in the normally weaned group. In the elevated plus-maze test, rat pups in the early-weaned group had higher anxiety levels. The results showed that deprivation of mother-pup interactions during the preweaning period decreases affiliative interactions between cage mates, including play-fighting behaviors during the postweaning developmental period, and increases anxiety levels during early adulthood.

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“…Prenatal stress of the dams through restraint stress leads to a feminization of social play patterns in males with no effect on females (Ward & Stehm, 1991). Male rats exposed to either handling or maternal separation showed a more feminized pattern of play behavior (Arnold & Siviy, 2002). An acute impoverishment of the environment through food restriction increases play when the restriction is imposed acutely before play fighting is observed (Siviy & Panksepp, 1985).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

The influence of natural variations in maternal care on play fighting in the rat

Parent

Meaney

2008

Developmental Psychobiology

162

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Naturally occurring variations in maternal care in the rat influence the sensitivity of offspring to stress in adulthood. The offspring of mothers that show lower levels of pup licking/grooming (i.e., low-LG mothers) demonstrate enhanced responses to stress and increased anxiety compared to those of high-LG mothers. Low-LG offspring are also more sensitive to the influence of environmental enrichment than high-LG offspring. This study examined play fighting in the juvenile offspring of high-LG and low-LG dams in a multiple-play partners housing environment. Male offspring from low-LG dams demonstrated a significantly higher frequency of pouncing, pinning and aggressive social grooming than did high-LG males and high-LG and low-LG females. Consistent with earlier reports, male pups engaged in more play fighting than did females and maternal care was associated with differences in play fighting but only in males. Lower levels of stimulation in the form of LG from the dam during perinatal development may thus increase sensitivity for the stimulating effects of play behavior in periadolescence, in part explaining the increased solicitation of play fighting through increased pouncing in the male offspring of the low-LG mothers. These findings identify a possible influence of variations in maternal care on play fighting and suggest that maternal care in the perinatal period influence social interactions during periadolescence.

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Effects of neonatal handling and maternal separation on rough‐and‐tumble play in the rat

Cited by 49 publications

References 58 publications

Juvenile male rats display lower cortical metabolic capacity than females

Juvenile male rats display lower cortical metabolic capacity than females

Early weaning decreases play‐fighting behavior during the postweaning developmental period of wistar rats

The influence of natural variations in maternal care on play fighting in the rat

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