Rats reared with playful peers during the juvenile period have a modified prefrontal cortex and improved executive functions, whereas ones reared with less playful partners, such as an adult, do not. It has been hypothesized that peer-peer play fighting creates unique experiences that tax executive functions and so influence the refinement of the prefrontal cortex. […]
The present study investigated for the first time the relative importance of genetics and environment on individual differences in primary emotionality as measured with the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) by means of a twin-sibling study design. In N = 795 participants (n = 303 monozygotic twins, n = 172 dizygotic twins and n = […]
Mammalian brains contain seven primary-process affective substrates for primal emotional feelings and behaviors. Scientific labels for these interactive systems are SEEKING, RAGE, FEAR, LUST, CARE, PANIC, and PLAY. Understanding these brain substrates could lead to new treatments of emotional disturbances that accompany mental illnesses. We summarize how understanding of such emotional affects especially those of […]
The SEEKING system of mammalian brains needs to be understood from multiple scientific and clinical perspectives. SEEKING theory provides new neuropsychoanalytic perspectives for understanding the human mind and its behavioral and emotional disorders and considers dimensions of experience that have traditionally been subsumed under concepts such as “drives ” and “motivations. ” Historically these concepts […]
All mammals share homologous primary-process emotional circuits, verified by the capacity of artificial activation of these systems to mediate “rewarding ” and “punishing ” effects in humans and other animals. These systems (SEEKING, RAGE, FEAR, CARE, PANIC/GRIEF, and PLAY) mediate social functions. These bottom-up primal emotional networks are fundamental for emotional reinforcement processes that regulate […]
Rough-and-tumble play (RT) is a widespread phenomenon in mammals. Since it involves competition, whereby one animal attempts to gain advantage over another, RT runs the risk of escalation to serious fighting. Competition is typically curtailed by some degree of cooperation and different signals help negotiate potential mishaps during RT. This review provides a framework for […]
It is commonly believed that consciousness is a higher brain function. Here we consider the likelihood, based on abundant neuroevolutionary data that lower brain affective phenomenal experiences provide the “energy ” for the developmental construction of higher forms of cognitive consciousness. This view is concordant with many of the theoretical formulations of Sigmund Freud. In […]
The experience of peer play during the juvenile phase in rats is known to be important for the development of adult social competence. Adult social competence is also compromised by damage to the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), an area known to be involved in social behavior. We therefore hypothesized that the functioning of the OFC in […]
Gender differences in play behavior and physical aggression have been consistently reported. Theoretical perspectives concerning evolutionary, social, and social-cognitive mechanisms suggest that male-typical play behavior during childhood increases subsequent physical aggression. The evidence supporting these connections is limited, however. The present study investigated the association between gender-typed play behavior in early childhood and physical aggression […]
There has been a recent resurgence of interest in the study of play behavior, marked by much empirical research and theoretical review. These efforts suggest that play may be of greater biological significance than most scientists realize. Here we present a brief synopsis of current play research covering issues of adaptive function, phylogeny, causal mechanisms, […]
Pre-clinical models of brain affective circuits provide relevant evidence for understanding the brain systems that figure heavily in psychiatric disorders. Social isolation and the resulting separation distress contribute to the onset of depression. In this work, the effects of excitatory amino acids (EAA) on isolation-induced distress vocalization (DV) were assessed in young domestic chicks. Both […]
The author offers the thesis that hunter-gatherers promoted, through cultural means, the playful side of their human nature and this made possible their egalitarian, nonautocratic, intensely cooperative ways of living. Hunter-gatherer bands, with their fluid membership, are likened to social-play groups, which people could freely join or leave. Freedom to leave the band sets the […]
Mammalian brains contain at least 7 primal emotional systems – SEEKING, RAGE, FEAR, LUST, CARE, PANIC and PLAY (capitalization reflects a proposed primary-process terminology , to minimize semantic confusions and mereological fallacies). These systems help organisms feel affectively balanced (e.g. euthymic) and unbalanced (e.g. depressive, irritable, manic), providing novel insights for understanding human psychopathologies. Three […]
During the past half century of research with preclinical animal models, affective neuroscience has helped identify and illuminate the functional neuroanatomies and neurochemistries of seven primary process, i.e., genetically provided emotional systems of mammalian brains. All are subcortically localized, allowing animal models to guide the needed behavioral and neuroscientific analyses at levels of detail that […]
The effects of radical neonatal decortication on the social play of juvenile rats, as well as the effects of neonatal ablation of frontal or parietal cortex, were examined in this series of experiments. When total decorticates were tested in like-lesioned pairs, the frequency of pinning was reduced by about 50% and their average pin durations […]
This study evaluated whether music-induced aesthetic “chill ” responses, which typically correspond to peak emotional experiences, can be objectively monitored by degree of pupillary dilation. Participants listened to self-chosen songs versus control songs chosen by other participants. The experiment included an active condition where participants made key presses to indicate when experiencing chills and a […]
Adult male rats reared as pairmates from weaning were tested in a neutral arena with both members of another pair (one at a time). The unfamiliar pairs were found to engage in play fighting, although they were more likely to escalate the encounter into serious fighting than were pairs of familiar rats. Based on their […]
Although decorticated rats are able to engage in play, their play is abnormal in three ways. First, decorticates do not display the normal, age-related shifts in defensive strategies during development. Second, decorticates do not modify their defensive tactics in response to the social identity of their partners. Third, decorticates display a global shift in defensive […]
Cross-species affective neuroscience studies confirm that primary-process emotional feelings are organized within primitive subcortical regions of the brain that are anatomically, neurochemically, and functionally homologous in all mammals that have been studied. Emotional feelings (affects) are intrinsic values that inform animals how they are faring in the quest to survive. The various positive affects indicate […]
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Cross-Species affective neuroscience decoding of the primal affective experiences of humans and related animals
Background: The issue of whether other animals have internally felt experiences has vexed animal behavioral science since its inception. Although most investigators remain agnostic on such contentious issues, there is now abundant experimental evidence indicating that all mammals have negatively and positively-valenced emotional networks concentrated in homologous brain regions that mediate affective experiences when animals […]