Reward deficits are a hallmark feature of multiple psychiatric disorders and often recapitulated in rodent models useful for the study of psychiatric disorders, including those employing early life stress. Moreover, rodent studies have shown sex differences during adulthood in response to natural and drug rewards under normative conditions and in stress-based rodent models. Yet, little is known about the development of reward-related responses under normative conditions, including how these may differ in rats of both sexes during early development. Comparing reward-related behavioral responses between developing male and female rats may be useful for understanding how these processes may be affected in rodent models relevant to psychiatric disorders. To this end, we tested behavioral responses to natural rewards in male and female rats using sucrose consumption, sweet palatable food intake and social play tests at two timepoints (peripuberty, adolescence). Our results suggest comparable responses to consummatory and social rewards in male and female rats during peripuberty and adolescence as no sex differences were found for sucrose preference, chocolate candy intake or a subset of play behaviors (dorsal contacts, pins). These findings suggest that sex differences in response to these natural rewards emerge and may be more robust during adulthood.

中文翻译：

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发育中的雄性和雌性大鼠对自然奖励的行为反应


奖赏缺陷是多种精神疾病的一个标志性特征，并且经常在可用于研究精神疾病的啮齿动物模型中重述，包括那些早期生活压力的疾病。此外，啮齿动物研究表明，在正常条件下和基于压力的啮齿动物模型中，成年期对自然和药物奖励的反应存在性别差异。然而，人们对规范条件下奖励相关反应的发展知之甚少，包括两性大鼠在早期发育过程中这些反应如何不同。比较发育中的雄性和雌性大鼠之间与奖励相关的行为反应可能有助于了解这些过程在与精神疾病相关的啮齿动物模型中如何受到影响。为此，我们在两个时间点（青春期、青春期）使用蔗糖消耗、甜味可口食物摄入和社交游戏测试来测试雄性和雌性大鼠对自然奖励的行为反应。我们的结果表明，雄性和雌性大鼠在青春期前后和青春期对完成性和社会性奖励的反应具有可比性，因为在蔗糖偏好、巧克力糖摄入量或游戏行为的子集（背部接触、别针）方面没有发现性别差异。这些发现表明，对这些自然奖励的反应出现了性别差异，并且在成年期间可能会更加明显。