Sex differences in the play behavior of prepubescent rats

doi:10.1016/0031-9384(78)90060-4

Physiology & Behavior

Volume 20, Issue 2, February 1978, Pages 113-115

https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-9384(78)90060-4 Get rights and content

Abstract

Male and female rat pups received subcutaneous injections of 500 μg testosterone propionate in 0.05 ml sesame oil at 24 and 48 hr of age. Oil-treated animals received comparable injections of sesame oil alone. Social behavior was observed in same-sex, same-treatment pairs during brief encounters at 22, 26, 30 and 40 days of age. Oil-treated males spent significantly more time in rough-and-tumble play than did oil-treated females. Testosterone treatment during postnatal life significantly increased the time spent in play by females to levels comparable to those of oil-treated males. The results demonstrate that in the rat, as in primates, perinatal exposure to testicular androgens influences the development of patterns of play behavior.

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Mutation in the vasopressin gene eliminates the sex difference in social reinforcement in adolescent rats
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Citation Excerpt :
To our knowledge, the present study is the first to demonstrate increased operant responding for social stimuli in male compared to female adolescent rats. Adolescent male rats often (but not always) exhibit higher levels of social interactions, particularly social play behavior, than their female counterparts [40–42] (but see [43,44]). The sex difference in social reinforcement of WT rats seen in the present study adds to the small but growing literature indicating that the greater levels of social interactions in adolescent male rats is due, in part, to a greater sensitivity of males to the reinforcing/rewarding properties of social stimuli compared to females.
The neuropeptide, arginine vasopressin (AVP), is thought to contribute to sex differences in normative and pathological social development by regulating social motivation. Recent studies using Brattleboro rats that have a mutation in the Avp gene, however, have suggested that AVP impacts adolescent social behaviors of males and females in a similar manner through actions on behavioral state (i.e., arousal). In the present study, we made use of a recently developed operant conditioning paradigm to test whether the chronic, lifelong AVP deficiency caused by the Brattleboro mutation impacts the reinforcement value of social stimuli during adolescence. Operant responding for access to a familiar conspecific was assessed in male and female adolescent wild type (WT; normal AVP), heterozygous Brattleboro (HET), and homozygous Brattleboro (HOM) rats. Following the social reinforcement test, rats were tested in the same operant paradigm except that the social reinforcer was replaced with a light reinforcer to determine whether effects of the Brattleboro mutation were specific to social stimuli or a general characteristic of operant conditioning. WT males directed a greater proportion of their responding toward the social and light stimuli than WT females; only males exhibited a preference for these reinforcers over unreinforced ports. The sex difference in social reinforcement was absent in HOM rats, whereas the sex difference in light reinforcement was present in all genotypes. These data indicate that adolescent males are more sensitive to the reinforcing properties of social and light stimuli, and that the sex difference in social, but not light, reinforcement depends upon normal levels of AVP. These findings support the hypothesis that AVP plays a critical role in sex differences in social development by acting on factors that influence social motivation.
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Potentiating social, cognitive, and sensorimotor stimulations the Environmental Enrichment (EE) increases levels of novelty and complexity experienced by individuals. Growing evidence demonstrates that parental EE experience, even occurring in the pre-reproductive phase, affects behavioral and neural developmental trajectories of the offspring.
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This article is part of the Special Issue entitled “Neurobiology of Environmental Enrichment”.

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^☆: This research was supported by grant number AO-156 awarded to Jane Stewart by the National Research Council of Canada.

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Sex differences in the play behavior of prepubescent rats☆

Abstract

Anim. Behav.

Anim. Behav.

Anim. Behav.

Fetal androgens, human central nervous system differentiation, and behavior sex differences

Influence of preadolescent experiential factors on the development of sexual behavior in albino rats

J. comp. physiol. Psychol.