5 
As children in Norway increasingly spend time in online worlds, often identifying closely with their avatars, the potential for experiencing distress as a consequence of losing control of these digital selves has also increased. This article investigates the local notion of ‘hacking’ among a group of 8- and 9-year-old friends, and shows how users of […]
7 
This paper conceptualizes the teaching and learning of physically active play (PAP) in the early childhood curriculum. The conceptualization emerges from ‘doing complexivist bricolage’ and draws on complexity thinking features and concepts to position teaching and learning in PAP as children and teachers together exploring three different and coupled facets: fundamental movement patterns, group movement […]
8 
The study investigates parents’ perceptions of and engagement with their children’s play in the context of Qatar. Quantitative data were collected using a questionnaire that was administered to parents of children aged 4-7 years old in Doha. A total sample of 240 parents responded to the questionnaire. Findings indicated that Qatari parents valued the importance […]
4 
Post-weaning social isolation (PSI) has been shown to increase aggressive behavior and alter medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) function in rats. The present study sought to determine whether this phenotype would be normalized by increasing levels of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) using pharmacological inhibition of monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL). Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to […]
6 
Object play occurs in diverse animals in addition to birds and mammals. Although many carnivores engage in object play in a predatory context, many non-predators do so also. Conjectures over the years on the motivation to play are reviewed dealing with intrinsic, developmental, and stimulus factors. We then report on quantitative studies of the play […]
0 
Cognitive control skills important for success in school and life are amenable to improvement in at-risk preschoolers without costly interventions.
5 
Although social behavior in vertebrates spans a continuum from solitary to highly social, taxa are often dichotomized as either ‘social’ or ‘non-social’. We argue that this social dichotomy is overly simplistic, neglects the diversity of vertebrate social systems, impedes our understanding of the evolution of social behavior, and perpetuates the erroneous belief that one group-the […]
8 
The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between child-mother interactive behaviors and cognition in preschoolers born preterm (<32 weeks gestation; n = 82) and full term (>37 weeks gestation; n = 53). Child-mother interactive behaviors were assessed during a videotaped free play session. Maternal education and neonatal medical factors were included as […]
10+ 
Appetitive motivation and incentive states are essential functions sustained by a common emotional brain process, the SEEKING disposition, which drives explorative and approach behaviors, sustains goal-directed activity, promotes anticipatory cognitions, and evokes feelings of positive excitement which control reward-learning. All such functions are orchestrated by the same ” archetypical ” neural processes, activated in ancient […]
10
Compared to the study of negative emotions such as fear, the neurobiology of positive emotional processes and the associated positive affect (PA) states has only recently received scientific attention. Biological theories conceptualize PA as being related to (i) signals indicating that bodies are returning to equilibrium among those studying homeostasis, (ii) utility estimation among those […]
9 
Given that the cognitive and affective processes underlying empathy do not fossilize, studies of the empathic capacities of nonhuman primates provide us with a critical window through which we can explore the evolutionary origins of human empathy. Specifically, the comparative method provides an opportunity to determine which features of empathy are uniquely human and which […]
2 
The medial forebrain bundle (MFB), a key structure of reward-seeking circuitry, remains inadequately characterized in humans despite its vast importance for emotional processing and development of addictions and depression. Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging Fiber Tracking (DTI FT) the authors describe potential converging ascending and descending MFB and anterior thalamic radiation (ATR) that may mediate major […]
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What is the state of play?
My initial response to the question posed to me is that the state of play, as a scientific field, is actually pretty healthy. By this I mean that psychologists, biologists, ethologists, neuros-cientists, educators, sociologists, and others are realizing that play is an important, if not critical, aspect of life and an exciting and diverse research field. The increased […]