Play and the development of the brain's social skills

玩耍和大脑社交技能的发展

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-03706
• 负责人: Pellis, Sergio
• 金额: $ 2.91万
• 依托单位: University of Lethbridge
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=761418
• 关键词: Play; development; brain; social; skills

The most common form of play in non-human animals is "rough-and-tumble" play or "play fighting", which is a non-injurious form of competitive interaction in which partners compete for some advantage over one another, such as being able to bite their partner gently. Behavioural mechanisms exist that reduce the risk of play fighting escalating into serious fighting by incorporating some level of cooperation into the competition; this juxtaposition of competition and cooperation makes the repeated bodily contact present in play rewarding. When animals such as rats are deprived in the juvenile period of the opportunity to engage in peer-peer play, they have impoverished social skills as adults, such that their ability to mate successfully or negotiate dominance relationships is diminished. My work has shown that damage to the prefrontal cortex of socially reared rats produces social deficits similar to those present in rats that had been deprived of play. My laboratory has also shown that the anatomy of the neurons of the prefrontal cortex is modified when varying the experiences of play that animals have had as juveniles. Therefore, I theorize that experience with play fighting as juveniles is necessary for the development of those areas of the brain that are critical for social competency. In the proposed research, I will use laboratory rats to investigate what aspects of the play experience are critical for the development of the brain and characterize the mechanisms by which a more competent social brain executes more competent social behaviour. For example, improved performance may arise from the enhanced ability to sequence together complex movements or by attenuating the effects of fear arising from novel and unpredictable social contexts. Improved social competence may also arise from improved interpretation and/or delivery of social signals, such as the myriad 50-kHz calls that rats emit during social interactions, including play. I will also conduct a comparative analysis of play in a diverse range of primates to determine whether the organization of play fighting differs among species depending on the complexity of their social behaviour. Based on my preliminary findings, I hypothesize that species with more complex social systems, ones requiring them to negotiate more varied social relationships, have patterns of play as juveniles that are modified in ways that provide training for the social skills they will need as adults. These studies will characterize how social competence develops and the contribution made to this development by the experience of play as juveniles. The critical role of play in developing social skills and negotiating relationships leads this research to have implications beyond its value in basic science to include improvements in housing captive social animals and in developing strategies to facilitate experiences helpful to children.

在非人类动物中，最常见的游戏形式是“打闹”游戏或“打斗游戏”，这是一种非伤害性的竞争性互动形式，在这种互动中，伙伴们相互竞争一些优势，比如能够轻轻地咬对方。通过在竞争中加入一定程度的合作，行为机制能够降低游戏打斗升级为严重打斗的风险；这种竞争与合作的并存使得游戏中反复出现的身体接触变得有益。当像老鼠这样的动物在幼年时期被剥夺了参与同伴游戏的机会时，它们成年后的社交技能就会很差，因此它们成功交配或协商支配关系的能力就会减弱。我的研究表明，社会饲养的大鼠的前额叶皮层受到损伤，会产生与被剥夺玩耍机会的大鼠相似的社交缺陷。我的实验室还发现，当动物在幼年时期有过不同的玩耍经历时，前额叶皮层神经元的解剖结构就会发生改变。因此，我的理论是，青少年时期的打斗游戏经验对于大脑中那些对社会能力至关重要的区域的发展是必要的。在提议的研究中，我将使用实验室老鼠来调查游戏体验的哪些方面对大脑的发展至关重要，并描述更有能力的社会大脑执行更有能力的社会行为的机制。例如，表现的提高可能来自于将复杂动作排列在一起的能力的增强，或者来自于减轻由新奇和不可预测的社会环境引起的恐惧的影响。社交能力的提高也可能源于对社交信号的解释和/或传递的改进，比如老鼠在社交互动（包括玩耍）中发出的无数50 khz的叫声。我还将对不同灵长类动物的游戏进行比较分析，以确定不同物种之间的游戏打斗组织是否因其社会行为的复杂性而有所不同。基于我的初步发现，我假设社会系统更复杂的物种，那些需要它们协商更多样化的社会关系的物种，在幼年时有游戏模式，这些模式经过修改，为它们成年后所需的社交技能提供了训练。这些研究将描述社会能力是如何发展的，以及青少年时期的游戏经历对这种发展的贡献。游戏在发展社交技能和谈判关系方面的关键作用使这项研究的意义超出了其在基础科学中的价值，包括改善圈养社会动物的住房和制定策略，以促进对儿童有益的体验。