An investigation of individual, age and sexual differences in the play of Rattus norvegicus (Mammalia: Rodentia)
Abstract
Eight litters of Rattus norvegicus of the PVG/C hooded strain were observed in order to investigate the roles of individuality, sexuality and age in playful behaviour. Three measures of social play, namely, initiations, numbers of play bouts and numbers of playful elements performed were all found to be positively correlated. The incidence of social and solitary play were also positively correlated so that a concept of “playfulness” appeared to be justifiable. Playfulness showed no correlation with the general level of non‐playful locomotor activity. Male rats were more playful than females but only minor sex‐related differences were found to occur in the sequential organisation of play. Older rats showed longer play bouts and a higher degree of temporal organisation. Considerable individual differences in playfulness were recorded and in single sex litters playful rats were found to play together. The majority of opponents, in playfighting, alternated between the roles of attacker and defender.
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?
Males show more social play than females when social play is recorded among cage-mates and under undisturbed conditions.
“Males show more social play than females when social play is recorded among cage-mates and under undisturbed conditions (Poole & Fish, 1976; Meaney & Stewart, 1981; Parent & Meaney, 2008).”
From Sex-specific modulation of juvenile social play by vasopressin (2013) · cites this paper as Poole & Fish, 1976
Cites
The ecology and sociology of the Norway rat
Calhoun, J. B. (1963) · doi:10.5962/bhl.title.112283 · Cited by 1,040 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
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
Burke, A. R., McCormick, C. M., Pellis, S. M., & Lukkes, J. L. (2017) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.01.018 · Cited by 225 · see citing works
Rodent empathy and affective neuroscience
Panksepp, J. B., & Lahvis, G. P. (2011) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.05.013 · Cited by 224 · see citing works
Social Behavior and Social Motivation in Adolescent Rats
Varlinskaya, E. I., Spear, L. P., & Spear, N. E. (1999) · Physiology & Behavior · doi:10.1016/s0031-9384(98)00285-6 · Cited by 194 · see citing works
The influence of natural variations in maternal care on play fighting in the rat
Parent, C. I., & Meaney, M. J. (2008) · Developmental Psychobiology · doi:10.1002/dev.20342 · Cited by 175 · see citing works
Sex-specific modulation of juvenile social play by vasopressin
Veenema, A. H., Bredewold, R., & De Vries, G. J. (2013) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.06.002 · Cited by 166 · see citing works
“Males show more social play than females when social play is recorded among cage-mates and under undisturbed conditions (Poole & Fish, 1976; Meaney & Stewart, 1981; Parent & Meaney, 2008).”
BackgroundPrenatal 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
Developmental analyses of social play behavior in juvenile rats
Thor, D. H., & Holloway, W. R. (1984) · Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society · doi:10.3758/bf03333916 · Cited by 105 · 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
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
Barrett, C. E., Modi, M. E., Zhang, B. C., Walum, H., Inoue, K., & Young, L. J. (2014) · Neuropharmacology · doi:10.1016/j.neuropharm.2014.05.041 · Cited by 34 · 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
Play matters: the surprising relationship between juvenile playfulness and anxiety in later life
Richter, S. H., Kästner, N., Kriwet, M., Kaiser, S., & Sachser, N. (2016) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.02.003 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
The energetic costs of rough‐and‐tumble play in the juvenile rat
Siviy, S. M., & Atrens, D. M. (1992) · Developmental Psychobiology · doi:10.1002/dev.420250206 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Pinning in the Play Fighting of Rats: A Comparative Perspective With Methodological Recommendations
Himmler, S. M., Himmler, B. T., Stryjek, R., Modlińska, K., Pisula, W., & Pellis, S. M. (2016) · International Journal of Comparative Psychology · doi:10.46867/ijcp.2016.29.00.06 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
- Authors
- Poole, T. B., & Fish, J.
- Affiliations
- Aberystwyth University (GB)
- Venue
- Journal of Zoology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1976-06
- Volume
- 179
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 249-259
- ISSN
- 0952-8369 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-7998
- OpenAlex
- W2026717158
- Cited by
- 149
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 5.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Zoology (publishedVersion)
- RCIN (Digital Repository of the Scientifics Institutes) (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Keywords
- play behavior, Rattus norvegicus, social play, solitary play, playfulness, individual differences, sex differences, age differences, play initiation, locomotor activity
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
