ArticleBehaviour2016
A Brain Motivated to Play: Insights into the Neurobiology of Playfulness.
Article in Behaviour, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 105 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neural Mechanisms of Social Homeostasis: Dynamic Range Plasticity.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Groups of familiar male rats form unstable partner preferences when play fighting during the juvenile period.iScience · 2025Article
- Juvenile male rats form preferences based on strain when playing in groups but not in pairs.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- The neurobiology of play: a narrative review of evidence from mice and humans for advancing neurorehabilitation.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- The 7 Muses of Neuro-Creative Cycle: How some patients with Parkinson's disease can unleash latent creativity.AIMS neuroscience · 2025Article
- Play partner preferences among groups of unfamiliar juvenile male rats.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Tickle fetishism: pleasure beyond playfulness.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Comparing the ontogeny, neurobiology, and function of social play in hamsters and rats.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Unsupervised discovery of behaviorally relevant brain states in rats playing hide-and-seek.Current biology : CB · 2022Article
- The rough-and-tumble play of rats as a natural behavior suitable for studying the social brain.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Social play experience in juvenile rats is indispensable for appropriate socio-sexual behavior in adulthood in males but not females.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Disrupted development from head to tail: Pervasive effects of postnatal restricted resources on neurobiological, behavioral, and morphometric outcomes.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Social behavior in prepubertal neurexin 1α deficient rats: A model of neurodevelopmental disorders.Behavioral neuroscience · 2021Article
- Intrinsic motivation for singing in songbirds is enhanced by temporary singing suppression and regulated by dopamine.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Influence of Ideational Praxis on the Development of Play and Adaptive Behavior of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Comparative Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Testing the Associations Between Adult Playfulness and Sensation Seeking: A SEM Analysis of Librarians and Police Officers.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Adult playful individuals have more long- and short-term relationships.Evolutionary human sciences · 2021Article
- Brain Activity during Different Throwing Games: EEG Exploratory Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Involvement of orexin/hypocretin in the expression of social play behaviour in juvenile rats.International journal of play · 2020Article
- Back to the Future: A Glance Over Wolf Social Behavior to Understand Dog-Human Relationship.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Play is an important part of normal childhood development and is seen in varied forms among many mammals. While not indispensable to normal development, playful social experiences as juveniles may provide an opportunity to develop flexible behavioral strategies when novel and uncertain situations arise as an adult. To understand the neurobiological mechanisms responsible for play and how the functions of play may relate to these neural substrates, the rat has become the model of choice. Play in the rat is easily quantified, tightly regulated, and can be modulated by genetic factors and postnatal experiences. Brain areas most likely to be involved in the modulation of play include regions within the prefrontal cortex, dorsal and ventral striatum, some regions of the amygdala, and habenula. This paper discusses what we currently know about the neurobiological substrates of play and how this can help illuminate functional questions about the putative benefits of play.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.