Himmler Stephanie M, Modlinska Klaudia, Stryjek Rafal, Himmler Brett T, Pisula Wojciech, Pellis Sergio M
Department of Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge.
Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences.
J Comp Psychol. 2014 Aug;128(3):318-27. doi: 10.1037/a0036104. Epub 2014 Apr 21.
Laboratory strains of rats are a commonly used subject to study play behavior. Recent research has shown that play in one laboratory strain of rat (e.g., Long-Evans hooded) differs in a number of ways from its wild counterparts. These findings suggest that domestication affects some aspects of play behavior. However, there are multiple strains of laboratory rats, which have been domesticated through different lineages all derived from wild rats and it cannot be assumed that all domestic strains are identical in their play. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the play behavior of three other strains of laboratory rats (e.g., Wistar, Sprague-Dawley, and Brown Norway). All strains were similar to each other as they all engaged in high frequencies of play, tolerated similar interanimal distances before initiating playful defense and displayed similar acrobatic capacities, suggesting domestication produces some common changes in play and other factors that influence play. However, strains differed significantly from one another in the use of tactics that promote bodily contact during play. Indeed, in this regard, some strains were more similar to wild rats than others, suggesting that some domestication-induced changes are either unique or more prominent in some laboratory strains than others. Such a mosaic pattern of transformation not only offers the possibility of using strain differences to characterize the genetic factors contributing to different facets of play, but also cautions researchers from making rat-general conclusions from studies on any one strain.
实验大鼠品系是研究玩耍行为常用的对象。最近的研究表明，某一实验大鼠品系（如长-伊文斯 Hooded 大鼠）的玩耍行为在许多方面与其野生同类不同。这些发现表明驯化会影响玩耍行为的某些方面。然而，实验大鼠有多个品系，它们都是通过源自野生大鼠的不同谱系驯化而来的，不能假定所有家养品系在玩耍行为上都是相同的。因此，本研究的目的是比较其他三种实验大鼠品系（如 Wistar 大鼠、Sprague-Dawley 大鼠和 Brown Norway 大鼠）的玩耍行为。所有品系彼此相似，因为它们都有很高的玩耍频率，在开始进行玩耍性防御之前能容忍相似的动物间距离，并且表现出相似的杂技能力，这表明驯化在玩耍行为以及其他影响玩耍的因素方面产生了一些共同的变化。然而，在玩耍过程中促进身体接触的策略使用上，各品系之间存在显著差异。事实上，在这方面，一些品系比其他品系更类似于野生大鼠，这表明一些驯化引起的变化在某些实验品系中要么是独特的，要么比其他品系更显著。这种镶嵌式的转变模式不仅为利用品系差异来表征影响玩耍不同方面的遗传因素提供了可能性，也提醒研究人员不要根据对任何一个品系的研究得出适用于所有大鼠的结论。
