Animal play and evolution: Seven timely research issues about enigmatic phenomena

• Published in: Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews 2024-05, Vol.160, p.105617-105617, Article 105617
• Main Authors: Burghardt, Gordon M., Pellis, Sergio M., Schank, Jeffrey C., Smaldino, Paul E., Vanderschuren, Louk J.M.J., Palagi, Elisabetta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptive function; Communication; Development; Evolution; Neural mechanisms; Ritual; Sociality
• ISSN: 0149-7634; 1873-7528
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105617

The nature of play in animals has been long debated, but progress is being made in characterizing play and its variants, documenting its distribution across vertebrate and invertebrate taxa, describing its mechanisms and development, and proposing testable theories about its origins, evolution, and adaptive functions. To achieve a deeper understanding of the functions and evolution of play, integrative and conceptual advances are needed in neuroscience, computer modeling, phylogenetics, experimental techniques, behavior development, and inter- and intra-specific variation. The special issue contains papers documenting many of these advances. Here, we describe seven timely areas where further research is needed to understand this still enigmatic class of phenomena more fully. Growing empirical and theoretical evidence reveals that play has been crucial in the evolution of behavior and psychology but has been underestimated, if not ignored, in both empirical and theoretical areas of evolutionary biology and neuroscience. Play research has important ramifications for understanding the evolution of cognition, emotion, and culture, and research on animals can be both informative and transformative. •Play is important for understanding biological and cultural evolution but has largely been ignored by biological researchers.•We identify critical issues that can advance our understanding of the evolutionary processes and physiological bases of play•We describe seven timely areas where further research is needed to fully understand this enigmatic class of phenomena.•Integrating neuroscience, computer modeling, and phylogenetics will help achieve a deeper evolutionary understanding of play•The special issue documents many of these advances.