Multiple Differences in the Play Fighting of Male and Female Rats. Implications for the Causes and Functions of Play

Pellis, Sergio M.; Field, Evelyn F.; Smith, Lori K.; Pellis, Vivien C.

doi:10.1016/0149-7634(95)00060-7

Cited by 206 publications

(203 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…Douglas et al (2004) reported that although both male and female adolescents demonstrate social reward-CPP, the effect is most pronounced among the isolation-housed males. In addition, a number of studies have shown that males generally engage in more play and other dominance-related behaviors than females (Douglas et al, 2004;Meaney & Stewart, 1981;Pellis et al, 1997;Pellis & Pellis, 1990;Thor & Holloway, 1983. Given that Douglas et al included both sexes in their correlation analyses, whereas the present study did not include females, it is possible that females may have contributed to the positive correlations observed previously.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 53%

Social reward-conditioned place preference: A model revealing an interaction between cocaine and social context rewards in rats

Thiel

Okun

Neisewander

2008

Drug and Alcohol Dependence

149

150

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A recent thrust in drug abuse research is the influence of social interactions on drug effects. Therefore, the present study examined conditioned place preference (CPP) as a model for assessing interactions between drug and social rewards in adolescent rats. Parameters for establishing social reward-CPP were examined, including the number of conditioning sessions/day (1 or 2), the total number of sessions (2, 4, or 16), and the duration of sessions (10 or 30 min). Subsequently, the effects of cocaine or dextromethorphan on social reward-CPP and play behavior were examined. The results demonstrate that social reward-CPP (i.e., preference shift for an environment paired previously with a rat) was similar using either 1 or 2 conditioning sessions/day and either 10 or 30 min sessions; however, social reward-CPP increased as the number of social pairings increased. Additionally, a low dose of cocaine (2 mg/kg, IP) and a low number of social pairings (2 pairings) failed to produce CPP when examined alone, but together produced a robust CPP, demonstrating an interaction between these rewards. The non-rewarding drug, dextromethorphan (30 mg/kg, IP), failed to enhance social reward-CPP, suggesting that drug-enhanced social reward-CPP is specific to rewarding drugs. Surprisingly, there was no relationship between play behaviors and preference shift in drug-naïve animals. Furthermore, cocaine inhibited play behavior despite enhancing social reward-CPP, suggesting that aspects of social interaction other than play behavior likely contribute to social reward. The findings have important implications for understanding the influence of social context on cocaine reward during adolescence.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 53%

Social reward-conditioned place preference: A model revealing an interaction between cocaine and social context rewards in rats

Thiel

Okun

Neisewander

2008

Drug and Alcohol Dependence

149

150

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“…These findings contrast with data from Johnston and File [14] who found that hooded Lister female rats did not increase their social activity when examined in a familiar test situation. Similarly, whereas we observed comparable levels of play fighting in adolescent males and females, some sex differences in components of social interactions have been reported previously among adolescents [21,25,26,32,33], with adolescent males, for instance, engaging in more play fighting [32,33]. Although no main effects or interactions involving sex emerged in overall ANOVAs for each measure of social behavior, social motivation, and locomotor activity, it is possible that the pronounced effects of housing conditions, test situation, and age, as well as interactions of these three factors could have masked possible sex-related differences.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 41%

“…Nevertheless, reports of sex-related differences in social behavior appear to be in part straindependent. For instance, Long-Evans hooded female adolescent rats engage in less play fighting than their male counterparts, whereas Sprague-Dawley females demonstrate a rate of playful attacks comparable to that of males [21]. Therefore, the lack of sex-related differences in social behavior perhaps should not be surprising, given that Sprague-Dawley rats were used in the present study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Social interactions in adolescent and adult Sprague–Dawley rats: Impact of social deprivation and test context familiarity

Varlinskaya

Spear

2008

Behavioural Brain Research

189

161

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Interactions with peers become particularly important during adolescence, and age differences in social interactions have been successfully modeled in rats. To determine the impact of social deprivation on social interactions under anxiogenic (unfamiliar) or non-anxiogenic (familiar) test circumstances during ontogeny, the present study used a modified social interaction test to assess the effects of 5 days of social isolation or group housing on different components of social behavior in early [postnatal day (P) 28], mid (P35), or late (P42) adolescent and adult (P70) male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. As expected, testing in an unfamiliar environment suppressed social interactions regardless of age, housing, and sex. Social deprivation drastically enhanced all forms of social behavior in P28 animals regardless of test situation, whereas depriving older animals of social interactions had more modest effects and was restricted predominantly to play fighting-an adolescent-characteristic form of social interactions. Social investigation-more adult-typical form of social behavior was relatively resistant to isolation-induced enhancement and was elevated in early adolescent isolates only. These findings confirm that different forms of social behavior are differentially sensitive to social deprivation across ontogeny.

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“…Firstly, like most social mammals, rats exhibit social play, commonly referred to as play-fighting, or rough-and-tumble play (Pellis & Pellis, 2007), which is ideal for comparative research. Play fighting in rats has been thoroughly studied and characterized (Pellis & McKenna, 1992;Pellis et al, 1997), and is distinguishable from aggressive behavior (Pellis & Pellis, 1987). Locomotor-rotational play, though less studied, is also expressed by this species and consists of a number of 'run' and 'jerk-jump' behaviors (Pellis & Pellis, 1983).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such properties of play have been studied extensively in rats (Douglas, Varlinskaya, & Spear, 2004;Knutson, Burgdorf, & Panksepp, 1998;Panksepp, 1981;Pellis, Field, Smith, & Pellis, 1997;Pellis & McKenna, 1992;Pellis & Pellis, 1987;Vanderschuren, 2010), and rats can serve as a promising model for the study of play and emotional state for a number of reasons. Firstly, like most social mammals, rats exhibit social play, commonly referred to as play-fighting, or rough-and-tumble play (Pellis & Pellis, 2007), which is ideal for comparative research.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Play in Rats: Association across Contexts and Types, and Analysis of Structure

Melotti¹,

Bailoo²,

Murphy³

et al. 2014

AB&C

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-Play has been proposed as a promising indicator of positive animal welfare. We aimed to study play in rats across contexts (conspecific/heterospecific) and types (social: pinning, being pinned; solitary: scampering), and we investigated its structure using behavioral sequence analysis. Group-housed (three per cage) adolescent male Lister Hooded rats (n = 21) were subjected to a Play-In-Pairs test: after a 3 hour isolation period, a pair of cagemates was returned to the home cage and both social and solitary play were scored for 20 min. This procedure was repeated for each pair combination across three consecutive days, and individual play scores were calculated. Heterospecific play was measured using a Tickling test: rats were individually tickled by the experimenter through bouts of gentle, rapid finger movements on their underside, and the number of positive 50 kHz frequency modulated vocalizations and experimenter-directed approach behaviors were recorded. Both of the above tests were compared with social play in the home cage. While conspecific play in both the Play-In-Pairs test and home cage were correlated, both seemed to be unrelated to heterospecific play in the Tickling test. During the Play-In-Pairs test, although both solitary and social play types occurred, they were unrelated, and solitary locomotor play of one rat did not predict the subsequent play behavior of its cage mate. Analysis of play structure revealed that social play occurred more often in bouts of repeated behaviors while solitary play sequences did not follow a specific pattern. If play is to be used as an indicator of positive welfare in rats, context, type and structure differences should be taken into account.

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Multiple Differences in the Play Fighting of Male and Female Rats. Implications for the Causes and Functions of Play

Cited by 206 publications

References 73 publications

Social reward-conditioned place preference: A model revealing an interaction between cocaine and social context rewards in rats

Social reward-conditioned place preference: A model revealing an interaction between cocaine and social context rewards in rats

Social interactions in adolescent and adult Sprague–Dawley rats: Impact of social deprivation and test context familiarity

Play in Rats: Association across Contexts and Types, and Analysis of Structure

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