{"title":"Disentangling developmental effects of play aspects in rat rough-and-tumble play.","authors":"Quanxiao Liu, Mariia Radchenko, Marek Špinka","doi":"10.1098/rsbl.2024.0037","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Animal play encompasses a variety of aspects, with kinematic and social aspects being particularly prevalent in mammalian play behaviour. While the developmental effects of play have been increasingly documented in recent decades, understanding the specific contributions of different play aspects remains crucial to understand the function and evolutionary benefit of animal play. In our study, developing male rats were exposed to rough-and-tumble play selectively reduced in either the kinematic or the social aspect. We then assessed the developmental effects of reduced play on their appraisal of standardized human-rat play ('tickling') by examining their emission of 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs). Using a deep learning framework, we efficiently classified five subtypes of these USVs across six behavioural states. Our results revealed that rats lacking the kinematic aspect in play emitted fewer USVs during tactile contacts by human and generally produced fewer USVs of positive valence compared with control rats. Rats lacking the social aspect did not differ from the control and the kinematically reduced group. These results indicate aspects of play have different developmental effects, underscoring the need for researchers to further disentangle how each aspect affects animals.</p>","PeriodicalId":9005,"journal":{"name":"Biology Letters","volume":"20 5","pages":"20240037"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11285777/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Biology Letters","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0037","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/5/29 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Animal play encompasses a variety of aspects, with kinematic and social aspects being particularly prevalent in mammalian play behaviour. While the developmental effects of play have been increasingly documented in recent decades, understanding the specific contributions of different play aspects remains crucial to understand the function and evolutionary benefit of animal play. In our study, developing male rats were exposed to rough-and-tumble play selectively reduced in either the kinematic or the social aspect. We then assessed the developmental effects of reduced play on their appraisal of standardized human-rat play ('tickling') by examining their emission of 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs). Using a deep learning framework, we efficiently classified five subtypes of these USVs across six behavioural states. Our results revealed that rats lacking the kinematic aspect in play emitted fewer USVs during tactile contacts by human and generally produced fewer USVs of positive valence compared with control rats. Rats lacking the social aspect did not differ from the control and the kinematically reduced group. These results indicate aspects of play have different developmental effects, underscoring the need for researchers to further disentangle how each aspect affects animals.
期刊介绍:
Previously a supplement to Proceedings B, and launched as an independent journal in 2005, Biology Letters is a primarily online, peer-reviewed journal that publishes short, high-quality articles, reviews and opinion pieces from across the biological sciences. The scope of Biology Letters is vast - publishing high-quality research in any area of the biological sciences. However, we have particular strengths in the biology, evolution and ecology of whole organisms. We also publish in other areas of biology, such as molecular ecology and evolution, environmental science, and phylogenetics.