ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2013
Sex-specific modulation of juvenile social play by vasopressin.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 92 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
92 citing papers in PubMed, 187 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of oxytocin and vasopressin on the neural response to unreciprocated cooperation within brain regions involved in stress and anxiety in men and women.Brain imaging and behavior · 2016Trial
- The nucleus accumbens to ventral pallidum pathway regulates social play behavior via sex-specific mechanisms in juvenile rats.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- Partner Choice and Context-Dependent Sex Differences in Rat Rough-and-Tumble Play.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Article
- Nonlinear and sex-specific effects of V1aR deletion on juvenile social behavior.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Article
- Sex differences in the neural circuitry of aggression.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Connectivity and phenotype of vasopressin 1a receptor cells in the lateral septum.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- To play or not to play? Effects of social isolation length and stimulus rat familiarity on social play engagement in three laboratory rat strains.Physiology & behavior · 2025Article
- Sex difference in the effects of ventral pallidum vasopressin 1a receptor partial knockdown on social behavior in mice.Hormones and behavior · 2025Article
- Impaired vasopressin neuromodulation of the lateral septum leads to social behavior deficits in Shank3BNature communications · 2025Article
- The transcriptome of playfulness is sex biased in the juvenile rat medial amygdala: A role for inhibitory neurons.Cell reports · 2025Article
- A review of the effects of different types of social behaviors on the recruitment of neuropeptides and neurotransmitters in the nucleus accumbens.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2025Review
- Vasopressin regulates social play behavior in sex-specific ways through glutamate modulation in the lateral septum.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Juvenile male rats form preferences based on strain when playing in groups but not in pairs.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Sex differences in the structure and function of the vasopressin system in the ventral pallidum are associated with the sex-specific regulation of social play behavior in juvenile rats.Hormones and behavior · 2024Article
- Beyond the binary: Characterizing the relationships between sex and neuropeptide receptor binding density measures in the rat brain.Hormones and behavior · 2024Article
- The bilevel chamber revealed differential involvement of vasopressin and oxytocin receptors in female mouse sexual behavior.PloS one · 2024Article
- Social Interaction Is Less Rewarding in Adult Female than in Male Mice.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Biased brain and behavioral responses towards kin in males of a communally breeding species.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Sex differences in afferents and efferents of vasopressin neurons of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and medial amygdala in mice.Hormones and behavior · 2023Article
- Perinatal opioid exposure leads to decreased social play in adolescent male and female rats: Potential role of oxytocin signaling in brain regions associated with social reward.Hormones and behavior · 2023Article
32 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Social play activities among juveniles are thought to contribute to the development of social and emotional skills in humans and animals. Conversely, social play deficits are observed in developmental neuropsychiatric disorders. Importantly, many of these disorders show sex differences in incidence, course of the disease, and severity of symptoms. We hypothesized that sex differences in the neural systems controlling social behavior can contribute to these differences. We therefore studied the involvement of the sexually dimorphic vasopressin and oxytocin systems, which have been implicated in these disorders, in juvenile social play behavior. Single-housed 5-week-old juvenile male and female rats were exposed in their home cage to an age-and sex-matched novel conspecific for 10 min, and social play behaviors were recorded. We found no consistent sex differences in duration or elements of social play in vehicle-treated rats. However, intracerebroventricular injection of the specific vasopressin 1a receptor (V1aR) antagonist (CH2)5Tyr(Me(2))AVP significantly reduced social play behaviors in males while increasing them in females. Intracerebroventricular injection of the specific oxytocin receptor antagonist des-Gly-NH2,d(CH2)5[Tyr(Me)(2),Thr(4)]OVT did not alter social play in either sex. To locate the effects of V1aR blockade on social play, we targeted the lateral septum, a sexually dimorphic brain region showing denser vasopressin fibers in males than in females and an abundant expression of V1aR in both sexes. Surprisingly, blockade of V1aR in the lateral septum increased social play behaviors in males, but decreased them in females. These findings suggest sex- and brain region-specific roles for vasopressin in the regulation of social play behavior in juvenile rats.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.