Neural Mechanisms of Play

Author(s): Burghardt, G.M.
NIFP Rating: 10

Play and ritual, as usually defined, seem to be disparate phenomena, one focused on freedom and flexibility, the other on formality and rigidity. In actuality, they have many common elements, and these will be explored from a comparative perspective grounded in ethology, evolution and play theory. The description and recognition of play in diverse species […]

Author(s): Nocjar, C., Zhang, J., Feng, P., J. Panksepp
NIFP Rating: 7

Anhedonia is a core symptom of clinical depression. Two brain neuropeptides that have been implicated in anhedonia symptomology in preclinical depression models are dynorphin and orexin; which are concentrated along lateral hypothalamic dopamine reward pathways. These affect regulating neuropeptides modulate each other’s function, implicating an interactive dysfunction between them in anhedonia symptomology. But whether their […]

Author(s): Muhammad, A., Hossain, S., Pellis, S.M., Kolb, B.
NIFP Rating: 5

This study investigated the effect of postnatal tactile stimulation (TS) on juvenile behavior, adult amphetamine (AMPH) sensitization, and the interaction of TS and AMPH on prefrontal cortical (PFC) thickness and striatum size. Pups received TS by stroking daily with a feather duster from birth till weaning and were tested, as juveniles, in behavioral tasks including […]

Author(s): Kisko, T.M., Euston, D.R., Pellis, S.M.
NIFP Rating: 4

When playing, rats emit 50-kHz calls which may function as play signals. A previous study using devocalized rats provides support for the hypothesis that 50-kHz function to promote and maintain playful interactions (Kisko et al., 2015). However, in that study, all pairs were cage mates and familiar with each other’s playful tendencies that could have […]

Author(s): Pellis, S.M., Pellis, V.C.
NIFP Rating: 8

Play involves neural circuits that encompass motivational, emotional and reward systems, such that the removal of the cortex does not impair the development, frequency, form or reward value of playing. However, the ability to ‘play with play’, that is, the ability to modify how play is performed with changing salient features of the context, does […]

Author(s): Keys, E., Benzies, K.M., Kirk, V., Duffett-Leger, L.
NIFP Rating: 2

Background: One in four Canadian families struggle with infant sleep disturbances. The aim of this study is to evaluate Play2Sleep in families of infants with sleep disturbances. In addition to parental education on infant sleep, Play2Sleep uses examples from a video-recorded, structured play session with mothers and fathers separately to provide feedback on parent-infant interactions […]

Author(s): Norscia, I., Demuru, E., Palagi, E.
NIFP Rating: 2

Psychological, clinical and neurobiological findings endorse that empathic abilities are more developed in women than in men. Because there is growing evidence that yawn contagion is an empathy-based phenomenon, we expect that the female bias in the empathic abilities reflects on a gender skew in the responsiveness to others’ yawns. We verified this assumption by […]

Author(s): Pellis, S.M., Pellis, V.C., Pelletier, A., Leca, J.-B.
NIFP Rating: 10

Given that many behavior patterns cluster together in sequences that are organized to solve specific problems (e.g., foraging), a fruitful perspective within which to study behaviors is as distinct ‘behavior systems’. Unlike many behavior systems that are widespread (e.g., anti-predator behavior, foraging, reproduction), behavior that can be relegated as playful is diverse, involving behavior patterns […]

Author(s): Pellis, S.M.
NIFP Rating: 2

play fighting constituted most of the social play recorded in a captive group of oriental small?clawed otters, Amblonyx cinerea. Frame by frame inspection of cinÈ film was used for detailed analyses of these behaviours. Two aspects of the organization of play fighting were analysed. In the first, biting, it was found that in dyadic play […]

Author(s): J. Panksepp
NIFP Rating: 10

Most of the complexities in cognition are probably not controlled by detailed genetics, but by the capacity of different species to see the world differently depending upon their perceptual strengths and learning abilities intermixing with the ancient genetic-instinctual tools for living. These cognition-emotion interactions notwithstanding, at their most basic level, core emotions are so ancient […]

Author(s): Pellis, S.M., Pellis, V.C.
NIFP Rating: 10

A central feature of rough-and-tumble play is reciprocity, requiring that the competition to win be attenuated by the need to maintain cooperation. This feature of rough-and-tumble play appears to be put to good use during childhood for the development of nuanced social skills, and can be used to good effect, throughout the life cycle, to […]

Author(s): Burleson, C.A., Pedersen, R.W., Seddighi, S., DeBusk, L.E., Burghardt, G.M., Cooper, M.A.
NIFP Rating: 9

Social play is a fundamental aspect of behavioral development in many species. Social play deprivation in rats alters dendritic morphology in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and we have shown that this brain region regulates responses to social defeat stress in Syrian hamsters. In this study, we tested whether play deprivation during the juvenile period […]

Author(s): Ikemoto, S., J. Panksepp
NIFP Rating: 9

Studies addressing behavioral functions of dopamine (DA) in the nucleus accumbens septi (NAS) are reviewed. A role of NAS DA in reward has long been suggested. However, some investigators have questioned the role of NAS DA in rewarding effects because of its role in aversive contexts. As findings supporting the role of NAS DA in […]

Author(s): J. Panksepp, Biven, L.
NIFP Rating: 10

To the best of our knowledge, the basic biological values of all mammalian brains were built upon the same basic plan, laid out in consciousness-creating affective circuits that are concentrated in subcortical regions, far below the neocortical “thinking cap ” that is so highly developed in humans. Mental life would be impossible without this foundation. […]

Author(s): Alcaro, Antonio, Carta, Stefano, Panksepp, Jaak
NIFP Rating: 10

Psychologists usually considered the “Self ” as an object of experience appearing when the individual perceives its existence within the conscious field. In accordance with such a view, the self-representing capacity of the human mind has been related to corticolimbic learning processes taking place within individual development. On the other hand, Carl Gustav Jung considered […]

Author(s): Palagi, E., Norscia, I.
NIFP Rating: 6

The nature of emotions has been long debated in philosophy and science, especially with respect of whether intentions or, alternatively, emotions have a leading role in guiding social interactions and decision making. Behaviour has been used to determine the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the processing and expression of basic emotions. Certain behavioural patterns not only reveal […]

Author(s): Paasonen, S.
NIFP Rating: 1

This article makes a theoretical argument for the productivity of the notions of playfulness and play in feminist and queer studies of sexuality. Defined as a mode of sensory openness and drive towards improvisation, playfulness can be seen as central to a range of sexual activities from fumbling, random motions to elaborate, rehearsed scenarios. Play […]

Author(s): Payne, C.
NIFP Rating: 2

The author takes up Karl Marx’s and Herbert Marcuse’s investigations into the possibilities for expanding freedom and play. She begins with an analysis of the essential questions about labor that need attention before considering theoretical and practical attempts to render necessary work superfluous in the interests of free play. She considers the limits of Marx’s […]

Author(s): Fabbro, F., Aglioti, S.M., Bergamasco, M., Clarici, A., J. Panksepp
NIFP Rating: 7

Although most aspects of world and self-consciousness are inherently subjective, neuroscience studies in humans and non-human animals provide correlational and causative indices of specific links between brain activity and representation of the self and the world. In this article we review neuroanatomic, neurophysiological and neuropsychological data supporting the hypothesis that different levels of self and […]

Author(s): J. Panksepp, Asma, S., Curran, G., Gabriel, R., Greif, T.
NIFP Rating: 6

First paragraph of this paper: Cross-species affective neuroscience is a new approach to understanding the mammalian BrainMind. 1 To achieve a coherent vision of foundational issues, the border between human and animal consciousness is intentionally blurred, especially at the primary-process level of organization (Table 1) — namely at the subcortical level — shared homologously by […]

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