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Vivien Pellis, PhD

Research scientist in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge, Vivien Pellis is a long-time collaborator and co-author with Sergio Pellis on virtually all of his landmark work on the neuroscience of play. Together they co-authored The Playful Brain: Venturing to the Limits of Neuroscience, the most comprehensive account of how rough-and-tumble play shapes prefrontal cortical development. Her work brings expertise in comparative ethology and behavioral analysis, contributing to the detailed frame-by-frame analysis of play movements that underpins the Pellis lab's mechanistic understanding of how play builds the social brain.