Assessing Rough-and-tumble Play Behavior in Juvenile Rats
Open accessAbstract
Play is a complex social behavior that is highly conserved across mammals. In most species, males engage in more frequent and vigorous play as juveniles than females, which reflects subtle yet impactful sex differences in brain circuitry and development. In this protocol, we describe a behavioral testing paradigm to assess social play in male and female juvenile rats. We highlight the behavior scoring criteria for distinguishing rough-and-tumble play from other play-related social behaviors. By analyzing both sexes, play behavior can be leveraged as a powerful tool to understand the sex-specific development and expression of social behavior.
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Sex differences in play are most robustly detected in spontaneous play paradigms.
“It is worth noting that sex differences in play are most robustly detected in spontaneous play paradigms (see discussion below).”
From Developmental origins of sex differences in the neural circuitry of play (2020) · cites this paper as VanRyzin et al., 2020
Cites
VanRyzin, J. W., Marquardt, A. E., Argue, K. J., Vecchiarelli, H. A., Ashton, S. E., Arambula, S. E., Hill, M. N., & McCarthy, M. M. (2019) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2019.02.006 · Cited by 272 · see citing works
Self-citationSex-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 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Alternatively, the protocol can be performed as a single-trial to study sex differences in the activation of neural circuitry underlying play (Veenema et al., 2013; Bredewold et al., 2018).”
BackgroundCharacterization 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
Self-citationBredewold, R., Nascimento, N. F., Ro, G. S., Cieslewski, S. E., Reppucci, C. J., & Veenema, A. H. (2018) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/s41386-018-0100-2 · Cited by 31 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Alternatively, the protocol can be performed as a single-trial to study sex differences in the activation of neural circuitry underlying play (Veenema et al., 2013; Bredewold et al., 2018).”
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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
Self-citationMarquardt, A. E., VanRyzin, J. W., Fuquen, R. W., & McCarthy, M. M. (2023) · Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2022.1076765 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Self-citationOliveira, G. D. F., Nguyen, A. T., Carreras-Simons, L., Niepsuj, T., Gadelhak, S. H., Johnson, A. K., Abdalla, A., Lev, E., Torres Román, S. G., Fuchs, S. N., et al. (2024) · Endocrinology · doi:10.1210/endocr/bqae046 · Cited by 5 · 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
- Authors
- VanRyzin, J., Marquardt, A., & McCarthy, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Maryland, Baltimore (US)
- ORCID
- Marquardt, Ashley
- Venue
- BIO-PROTOCOL
- Publisher
- Bio-Protocol, LLC
- Published
- 2020
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- e3481-e3481
- ISSN
- 2331-8325 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7842561
- OpenAlex
- W3042919841
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 1.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- BIO-PROTOCOL (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (R01MH52716)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA039062)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Keywords
- rough-and-tumble play, social play, young rats, sex differences, social behavior development, male and female rats
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