Sex differences in the play behavior of prepubescent rats
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
At its peak, male rats typically play more than female rats.
“At its peak, males typically play more than females (Olioff and Stewart, 1978; Pellis et al., 1997), making play particularly valuable for studying sex differences in social development.”
From Sexually dimorphic role for vasopressin in the development of social play (2014) · cites this paper as Olioff and Stewart, 1978
Sex differences in the amount of RTP initiated vary across studies, with some reporting males play more and others finding no significant differences.
“In addition to sex differences in partner preferences, rats also show sex differences in the amount of RTP initiated. However, this varies from study to study, with some reporting that males play more (Argue and McCarthy 2015; Olioff and Stewart 1978) and others do not find significant differences between sexes (Orsucci et al. 2025; Stark et al. 2021).”
From Partner Choice and Context‐Dependent Sex Differences in Rat Rough‐and‐Tumble Play (2026) · cites this paper as Olioff and Stewart 1978
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Panksepp, J. (1981) · Developmental Psychobiology · doi:10.1002/dev.420140405 · Cited by 537 · see citing works
The psychobiology of play: Theoretical and methodological perspectives
Panksepp, J., Siviy, S., & Normansell, L. (1984) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/0149-7634(84)90005-8 · Cited by 468 · see citing works
The reality and evolutionary significance of human psychological sex differences
Archer, J. (2019) · Biological Reviews · doi:10.1111/brv.12507 · Cited by 291 · see citing works
Social reward among juvenile mice
Panksepp, J. B., & Lahvis, G. P. (2007) · Genes, Brain and Behavior · doi:10.1111/j.1601-183x.2006.00295.x · Cited by 248 · see citing works
Life-span studies of dominance and aggression in established colonies of laboratory rats
Blanchard, R. J., Flannelly, K. J., & Blanchard, D. C. (1988) · Physiology & Behavior · doi:10.1016/0031-9384(88)90089-3 · Cited by 165 · see citing works
Prenatal stress feminizes juvenile play patterns in male rats
Ward, I. L., & Stehm, K. E. (1991) · Physiology & Behavior · doi:10.1016/0031-9384(91)90552-y · Cited by 125 · see citing works
Foley, K. A., MacFabe, D. F., Vaz, A., Ossenkopp, K., & Kavaliers, M. (2014) · International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2014.04.001 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
The role of the medial prefrontal cortex in the play fighting of rats.
Bell, H. C., McCaffrey, D. R., Forgie, M. L., Kolb, B., & Pellis, S. M. (2009) · Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.1037/a0017617 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Taylor, P. V., Veenema, A. H., Paul, M. J., Bredewold, R., Isaacs, S., & de Vries, G. J. (2012) · Biology of Sex Differences · doi:10.1186/2042-6410-3-15 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Thor, D. H., & Holloway, W. R. (1986) · Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.1037/0735-7044.100.2.275 · Cited by 73 · see citing works
Characterization of juvenile play in rats: importance of sex of self and sex of partner
Argue, K. J., & McCarthy, M. M. (2015) · Biology of Sex Differences · doi:10.1186/s13293-015-0034-x · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Prenatal protein malnutrition affects the social interactions of juvenile rats
Almeida, S. S., Tonkiss, J., & Galler, J. R. (1996) · Physiology & Behavior · doi:10.1016/0031-9384(95)02236-8 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Jessen, H. M., Kolodkin, M. H., Bychowski, M. E., Auger, C. J., & Auger, A. P. (2010) · Endocrinology · doi:10.1210/en.2009-0594 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Sexually dimorphic role for vasopressin in the development of social play
Paul, M. J., Terranova, J. I., Probst, C. K., Murray, E. K., Ismail, N. I., & de Vries, G. J. (2014) · Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00058 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
“BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE published: 28 February 2014 doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00058 Sexually dimorphic role for vasopressin in the development of social play”
BackgroundInfluentialArgue, K. J., VanRyzin, J. W., Falvo, D. J., Whitaker, A. R., Yu, S. J., & McCarthy, M. M. (2017) · eneuro · doi:10.1523/eneuro.0344-16.2017 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Raza, S., Himmler, B. T., Himmler, S. M., Harker, A., Kolb, B., Pellis, S. M., & Gibb, R. (2015) · Behavioural Pharmacology · doi:10.1097/fbp.0000000000000169 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Developmental origins of sex differences in the neural circuitry of play
VanRyzin, J. W., Marquardt, A. E., & McCarthy, M. M. (2020) · International Journal of Play · doi:10.1080/21594937.2020.1723370 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Cutuli, D., Berretta, E., Caporali, P., Sampedro-Piquero, P., De Bartolo, P., Laricchiuta, D., Gelfo, F., Pesoli, M., Foti, F., Farioli Vecchioli, S., et al. (2019) · Neuropharmacology · doi:10.1016/j.neuropharm.2018.02.015 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Maternal Touch Moderates Sex Differences in Juvenile Social Play Behavior
Edelmann, M. N., Demers, C. H., & Auger, A. P. (2013) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0057396 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Blake, B. E., & McCoy, K. A. (2015) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.04.021 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Sex differences in juvenile play behavior differ among rat strains
Northcutt, K. V., & Nwankwo, V. C. (2018) · Developmental Psychobiology · doi:10.1002/dev.21760 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Field, E. F., Martens, D. J., Watson, N. V., & Pellis, S. M. (2005) · Journal of Comparative Psychology · doi:10.1037/0735-7036.119.2.238 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Orsucci, I. C., Becker, K. D., Ham, J. R., Lee, J. D. A., Bowden, S. M., & Veenema, A. H. (2025) · Physiology & Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2025.115080 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Partner Choice and Context‐Dependent Sex Differences in Rat Rough‐and‐Tumble Play
Ham, J. R., Pellis, S. M., & McDonald, R. J. (2026) · European Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1111/ejn.70426 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Although sex differences are regularly reported in juvenile rat RTP (Argue and McCarthy 2015; Olioff and Stewart 1978; VanRyzin et al. 2019), many studies find no sex differences (Orsucci et al. 2025; Stark et al. 2021).”
- Authors
- Olioff, M., & Stewart, J.
- Affiliations
- Concordia University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Stewart, Jane
- Venue
- Physiology & Behavior
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1978-02
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 113-115
- ISSN
- 0031-9384 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2163043619
- Cited by
- 145
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 1.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Physiology & Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Sexual Differentiation and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Hormonal and reproductive studies
- Keywords
- sex differences, play behavior, rough-and-tumble play, testosterone propionate, prenatal androgen exposure, social behavior
- MeSH terms
- Age Factors, Animals, Animals, Newborn, Behavior, Animal, Female, Grooming, Male, Motor Activity, Sex Factors, Sexual Maturation, Social Behavior, Testosterone, Rats
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
