To Play or Not to Play? Effects of Social Isolation Length and Stimulus Rat Familiarity on Social Play Engagement in Three Laboratory Rat Strains.

Social play is displayed by juveniles of many mammalian species and is vital to the development of social skills as shown in humans and rats. Here, we determined how two external conditions, social isolation length and social stimulus familiarity, modulate social play levels (by the experimental animals) and social play defense tactics (by the stimulus animals) in juveniles of three common laboratory rat strains: Long-Evans, Sprague-Dawley, and Wistar. Experimental rats were socially isolated for either 2h or 48h and were then exposed in their home cage to a familiar (cage mate) or novel sex-, age-, and strain-matched stimulus rat.

To Play or Not to Play? Effects of Playmate Familiarity and Social Isolation on Social Play Engagement in Three Laboratory Rat Strains.

Social play is a motivating and rewarding behavior displayed by juveniles of many mammalian species, including humans and rats. Social play is vital to the development of social skills. Autistic children show less social play engagement which may contribute to their impairments in social skills.