When the individual comes into play: the role of self and the partner in the dyadic play fighting of rats

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dc.contributor.authorAchterberg, E. J. M.
dc.contributor.authorBurke, C. J.
dc.contributor.authorPellis, Sergio
dc.date.accessioned2025-10-21T19:51:49Z
dc.date.available2025-10-21T19:51:49Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.descriptionOpen access article. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) applies
dc.description.abstractSocial play in rats is rewarding and important for the development of brain and social skills. There are differences in the amount of play behavior displayed among individuals, with earlier studies suggesting that, despite variation across trials, individual differences tend to be consistent. In the present study, juvenile Lister-hooded rats were paired with a different, unfamiliar same-sex partner on three days and based on the amount of play each individual initiated, it was characterized as a high, medium or low player. Using this categorization, we explored three features related to individual differences. First, we show that by increasing the number of test days from two, as was done in a previous study (Lesscher et al., 2021), to three, characterization was effectively improved. Secondly, while the earlier study only used males, the present study showed that both sexes exhibit a similar pattern of individual differences in the degree of playfulness. Even though low players consistently initiated less play than medium and high players, all rats varied in how much play they initiated from one trial to the next. Thirdly, we assessed two potential mechanisms by which the playfulness of one rat can modify the level of playfulness of the other rat (i.e., emotional contagion vs homeostasis). Analyses of individuals’ contribution to the play of dyads suggest that rats consistently adjust their play behavior depending on the behavior displayed by the partner. Since this adjustment can be positive or negative, our data support a homeostatic mechanism, whereby individuals increase or decrease the amount of play they initiate, which results in the experience of an overall stable pattern of play across trials. Future research will investigate the neural bases for individual differences in play and how rats maintain a preferred level of play.
dc.description.peer-reviewYes
dc.identifier.citationAchterberg, E. J. M., Burke, C. J., & Pellis, S. M. (2023). When the individual comes into play: The role of self and the partner in the dyadic play fighting of rats. Behavioural Processes, 212, Article 104933. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104933
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10133/7187
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Neuroscience
dc.publisher.facultyArts and Science
dc.publisher.institutionUtrecht University
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Lethbridge
dc.publisher.institutionMcGill University
dc.publisher.urlhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104933
dc.subjectIndividual differences
dc.subjectSocial play
dc.subjectHomeostasis
dc.subjectContagion
dc.subjectPlay partners
dc.subjectPlay in laboratory rats
dc.subjectPlayfulness
dc.subject.lcshRats--Behavior
dc.subject.lcshPlay behavior in animals
dc.titleWhen the individual comes into play: the role of self and the partner in the dyadic play fighting of rats
dc.typeArticle
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