Work

Context‐dependent individual differences in playfulness in male rats

Year: 2017

Type: article

Abstract: Play has been proposed as an indicator of positive emotions and welfare in higher vertebrates. This study investigated playfulness in male rats by exploring its consistency across motivational states (with/without prior short social isolation) and two age points at early and late adolescence. Twenty-four male Lister Hooded rats housed in cages of four underwent two play tests: conspecific Play-in-Pairs and Tickling by the experimenter, which were compared with play in the home cage and basal anxiety levels. Play-in-Pairs measures were consistent across age and motivational states, and were independent from anxiety. Positively valenced vocalizations in the Tickling test were also consistent across age, yet were negatively related to anxiety. Play-in-Pairs and Tickling play contexts, as well as social and solitary play types, were unrelated. Therefore, this study supports the existence of consistent individual differences in playfulness in rats, and suggests that different play contexts and types represent motivationally distinct systems.

Source: Developmental Psychobiology

DOI: 10.1002/dev.21509

Authors: Jessica F. Lampe, Oliver Burman, Hanno Würbel, Luca Melotti

Institutions: University of Bern, University of Lincoln

Language: English

Topic: Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies

Subfield: Animal Science and Zoology

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung

Award: Play behaviour, emotional state, and emotional contagion in rats