Domestication and the Role of Social Play on the Development of Sociocognitive Skills in Rats
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Several studies on rats and hamsters, across multiple laboratories, have shown that limiting play in the juvenile period leads to adults that have physiological and anatomical changes in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and reduced socio-cognitive skills. Peers raised with playful peers have better socio-cognitive skills than animals raised with adult partners. Using Long Evans hooded rats - a commonly used domesticated strain - this relationship has been replicated multiple times. However, when the same paradigm was used with laboratory-reared wild rats, no differences were found between rats reared with peers and ones reared with adults. It has been shown that the key play-generated experiences involved are those related to actively wrestling with a partner and turn taking (as measured by role reversals), which give both partners opportunity to gain the advantage during play fighting. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that wild rat adults provide juveniles more such experiences than do adult Long Evans rats. The asymmetry in the play interactions in adult-juveniles pairs was compared between the two strains. As predicted, wild rat adults initiated more play with the juveniles, wrestled more and provided more opportunities for role reversals. The findings thus support the hypotheses for the observed strain differences in the effects of rearing condition on the mPFC.
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Identifying that turn taking, as shown by role reversals, is a key feature of rough-and-tumble play that promotes the development of socio-cognitive skills has been important for engineering therapeutic play contexts that promote those skills in children.
“Indeed, identifying that turn taking, as shown by the occurrence of role reversals, is a key feature of RTP that promotes the development of socio-cognitive skills (Pellis et al., 2019; Stark et al., 2021), has been important for engineering therapeutic play contexts that similarly promote the development of those skills in children (e.g., Diamond et al., 2007; Nijhoff et al., 2018).”
From The rough-and-tumble play of rats as a natural behavior suitable for studying the social brain (2022) · cites this paper as Pellis et al., 2019
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Cites
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“…development and sociocognitive development in the juvenile period has been demonstrated across several of rat strains (Baarendse et al., 2013; Bell et al., 2010; Einon et al., 1978; Himmler, Pellis, & Kolb, 2013; Himmler et al., 2018; Schneider, Bindila, et al., 2016; Schneider, Pätz, et…”
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“As both the effects of rearing on the development of the mPFC (Bell et al., 2010; Himmler, 2015; Himmler et al., 2013) and the behavioral analyses of the play experiences in those rearing environments (Pellis, Williams, & Pellis, 2017) involved females, the present study used females.”
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Play fighting and the development of the social brain: The rat’s tale
Pellis, S. M., Pellis, V. C., Ham, J. R., & Stark, R. A. (2023) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105037 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Self-citationStark, R., & Pellis, S. M. (2020) · International Journal of Play · doi:10.1080/21594937.2020.1720142 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Self-citationThe rough-and-tumble play of rats as a natural behavior suitable for studying the social brain
Pellis, S. M., Pellis, V. C., Ham, J. R., & Achterberg, E. J. M. (2022) · Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2022.1033999 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
“Indeed, identifying that turn taking, as shown by the occurrence of role reversals, is a key feature of RTP that promotes the development of socio-cognitive skills (Pellis et al., 2019; Stark et al., 2021), has been important for engineering therapeutic play contexts that similarly promote the development of those ski…”
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Pellis, S. M., Pellis, V. C., Himmler, B. T., Modlinska, K., Stryjek, R., Kolb, B., & Pisula, W.
- Affiliations
- University of Lethbridge (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Pellis, Sergio M.
- Venue
- International Journal of Comparative Psychology
- Published
- 2019
- Volume
- 32
- ISSN
- 0889-3667 (ISSN-L)
- 2168-3344
- OpenAlex
- W2940614247
- Cited by
- 32
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 2.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- International Journal of Comparative Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (40058)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Human-Animal Interaction Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- social play, domestication, socio-cognitive skills, medial prefrontal cortex, wild rats, Long-Evans rats, play fighting, turn-taking, role reversal, strain differences, juvenile development
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