Play fighting and the development of the social brain: The rat’s tale

Summary & key facts

This is a review of studies on play fighting in laboratory rats. It reports that rats kept from normal peer play in the juvenile period later show social and cognitive problems. Those problems are linked to changes in neurons in the prefrontal cortex, and the authors say play builds flexible social skills (like keeping play reciprocal) rather than teaching specific movements.

Key facts:

• Depriving juvenile rats of normal peer-peer play was found to lead to adult rats with socio-cognitive deficiencies.
• The socio-cognitive problems seen after play deprivation are correlated with physiological and anatomical changes to neurons in the prefrontal cortex, especially the medial prefrontal cortex.
• Detailed study of juvenile play showed that using the abilities needed to keep play reciprocal is important for getting the benefits of play fighting.
• The authors conclude that play fighting does not train specific motor actions. Instead, it improves a transferable skill set useful in many social and non-social contexts.
• The review describes the rat model as developed enough to guide broader comparative studies across mammals, but it also notes there are still gaps that need more research.
• The question of what benefits young animals get from play fighting has been debated for over 100 years; this review summarizes recent behavioral and neurobiological evidence.

Topics

Memory and Neural Mechanisms Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior Stress Responses and Cortisol

Categories

Psychology Social Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Biology Cognition Cognitive psychology Cognitive science Computer science Developmental psychology Ecology Juvenile Linguistics Neuroscience Philosophy Prefrontal cortex Programming language Psychology Reciprocal Set (abstract data type)