title: Sex differences in risk-taking and associative learning in rats.
abstract: In many species, males tend to have lower parental investment than females and greater variance in their reproductive success. Males might therefore be expected to adopt more high-risk, high-return behaviours than females. Next to risk-taking behaviour itself, sexes might also differ in how they respond to information and learn new associations owing to the fundamental link of these cognitive processes with the risk-reward axis. Here we investigated sex differences in both risk-taking and learned responses to risk by measuring male and female rats' (Rattus norvegicus) behaviour across three contexts in an open field test containing cover. We found that when the environment was novel, males spent more time out of cover than females. Males also hid less when exposed to the test arena containing predator odour. By contrast, females explored more than males when the predator odour was removed (associatively learned risk). These results suggest that males are more risk-prone but behave more in line with previous experiences, while females are more risk-averse and more responsive to changes in their current environment. Our results suggest that male and female rats differ in how they cope with risk and highlight that a general link may exist between risk-taking behaviour and learning style.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology , University of Cambridge , Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
authors.forename: Jolle Wolter
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9905-2633
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Jolles
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology , University of Cambridge , Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
authors.forename: Neeltje J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Boogert
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, Department of Organismal Animal Physiology , Radboud University Nijmegen , Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ruud
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: van den Bos
keywords: conditioning; exploratory behaviour; learning; rats; risk-taking; sex differences