ROUGH-AND-TUMBLE PLAY, SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, AND THE BRAIN
RAT Social Behaviour Lab
Understanding social connection across the lifespan
We study how play, social relationships, and early-life experiences shape the developing brain and behaviour.
Social experience shapes developing brains
Social experiences help shape who we become. In the RAT Social Behaviour Lab at St. Francis Xavier University, we investigate how animals recognize and evaluate social partners, learn to navigate complex relationships, and respond differently to similar social environments. By studying these processes across development, we aim to understand how social experience contributes to resilience and vulnerability throughout life.
Our Research
Social behaviour is dynamic. Animals choose their partners, respond to one another, and actively shape their social environments. Our research preserves this complexity by studying animals in naturalistic social contexts and treating individual and sex differences as meaningful biological variation.
Play and Social Development
Rough-and-tumble play is more than playful wrestling. It gives young animals opportunities to communicate, cooperate, compete, take turns, and adapt their behaviour to different partners.
We investigate how the amount and quality of early play—and the diversity, familiarity, and behaviour of available partners—shape social competence, emotional regulation, and brain development.
Social Experience and Mental Health
Social experiences do not affect everyone in the same way. Biological vulnerability, early-life adversity, and individual differences can influence how animals respond to social partners and changing environments.
Using complementary animal models, we examine how social experience contributes to anxiety- and depression-related behaviour, cognition, motivation, and emotional regulation.
Social Connection Across the Lifespan
Social relationships remain important well beyond early development. Changes to a social network can affect mood, cognition, and well-being, particularly during aging and disease.
We study how social stability and disruption influence later-life brain health, including cognitive decline and behavioural symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
How We Study Social Behaviour
Social interactions cannot be fully understood by studying one animal in isolation. We use group-based and partner-choice paradigms that allow animals to make meaningful social decisions.
We combine detailed behavioural observation with automated tracking, electrophysiology, calcium imaging, neuroanatomy, and histology to connect moment-to-moment social behaviour with activity and long-term change in the brain.
- Naturalistic and group-based social behaviour
- Partner choice, familiarity, and social memory
- Reciprocity, cooperation, and behavioural flexibility
- Individual, strain, and sex differences
- Early-life experience and developmental plasticity
- Social stability, aging, and brain health
Join the RAT Social Behaviour Lab
Curious about animal behaviour, neuroscience, development, or mental health?
We welcome inquiries from students interested in honours research, directed studies, volunteer research experience, summer positions, and MSc training. Students may become involved in behavioural testing, video analysis, automated behavioural tracking, histology, neuroanatomy, data analysis, scientific communication, and the development of new research projects.
Previous experience is welcome but not required. Curiosity, reliability, and a willingness to learn matter most.
Featured Research and Media
Early-age social play influences rat cognition
Lab Animal highlighted our research showing that early social experiences can have lasting consequences for cognition and behaviour.
Why do animals play?
Jackson Ham joined Outside/In and Tumble Science Podcast to discuss how scientists identify animal play, why turn-taking matters, and what rats can teach us about development.
Social instability and Alzheimer’s disease
Research supported by the Alzheimer Society of Canada examines how disruptions to social networks influence mood, cognition, and brain health during aging.
Meet the Lab Director
Dr. Jackson R. Ham
Jackson Ham is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at St. Francis Xavier University. His research combines neuroethology, developmental neuroscience, and systems neuroscience to investigate how social experiences shape the brain and behaviour.
His work examines social play, partner preferences, early-life adversity, individual differences, mood-disorder phenotypes, and the effects of social instability during aging. Across these projects, he approaches animals as active participants in their social environments.
