The sexual differentiation of social play

Abstract

An emerging consensus among those scientists examining the development of sex differences is that the origins of sex differences in behaviour involve an interaction between biological and social events. However, the nature of this interaction is unclear. In the young, the hormonal and social events that occur during development differ to some degree between males and females. For example, in several mammalian species, the social play of the young differs between males and females. In two such species, the Norway rat and the rhesus monkey, these differences in social play are dependent on prior neuroendocrine events occurring within specific brain regions. Thus, the early social experience of the juvenile may, in part, emerge from the prior sexual differentiation of CNS structures. These findings provide one way to consider the nature of the interaction between hormonal and social events in the social development of the young.