Building on the work of Jaak Panksepp, Sergio Pellis has done pioneering neuroscience research into the evolution of play behavior, how it works, and how it builds and improves executive function skills. Focusing on peer-to-peer play, he has demonstrated the influence of social play on development of the prefrontal cortex, and extensively researched the differences in rough-and-tumble play in species as varied as rats, deer, and great apes. He also treats topics such as the effects of play deficits and the effects of play on learning and socialization.
Dr. Pellis received his PhD in Zoology and Ethology from Monash University in Australia. He then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Monash University, followed by training in animal movement analysis at Tel Aviv University, and then a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also served as an assistant research scientist at the University of Florida before joining the faculty at the University of Lethbridge.
He has been a professor at the University of Lethbridge since 1990.
Most Influential Work:
- The Playful Brain: Venturing to the Limits of Neuroscience (with Vivien Pellis; Simon & Schuster, 2009) explores and synthesizes decades of research into play behaviors to create a groundbreaking integrated study.
- Sergio Pellis’s publications (via Department of Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge)
View all books and articles on our site by Sergio Pellis:
