“Laughing” rats and the evolutionary antecedents of human joy?

Panksepp, Jaak; Burgdorf, Jeffrey

doi:10.1016/s0031-9384(03)00159-8

Cited by 400 publications

(274 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Human laughter is likely homologous to play vocalizations associated with the open mouth display in a number of primate species (van Hooff, 1972;Provine, 2000;Davila-Ross, Owren, & Zimmermann, 2009;Vettin & Todt, 2005), and analogous to related vocal signals in other social species, such as rats (Panksepp & Burgdorf, 2003) and dogs (Simonet, 2004). Provine (2000) described laughter as evolved from labored breathing during physical play.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The animal nature of spontaneous human laughter

Bryant

Aktipis

2014

Evolution and Human Behavior

176

185

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The animal nature of spontaneous human laughter

Bryant

Aktipis

2014

Evolution and Human Behavior

176

185

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“…Furthermore, rats also emit such calls when tickled by a skilled experimenter in a playful way [36][37][38][39][40], and rates of 50-kHz calls were found to be positively correlated with the rewarding value of tickle stimulation as measured by instrumental approach behavior [36,37,39]. Conversely, aversive stimuli including bright light [20,37], predatory odors [37], the presence of foot shock cues [29] and drugs with aversive properties decrease levels of 50-kHz calls [41].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Transmission of Avoidance Behavior Under Situational Change in Learned and Unlearned Rats

2016

Animal Behavior

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Rats emit distinct types of ultrasonic vocalizations, which differ depending on age, the subject's current state and environmental factors. Since it was shown that 50-kHz calls can serve as indices of the animal's positive subjective state, they have received increasing experimental attention, and have successfully been used to study neurobiological mechanisms of positive affect. However, it is likely that such calls do not only reflect a positive affective state, but that they also serve a communicative purpose. Actually, rats emit the highest rates of 50-kHz calls typically during social interactions, like reproductive behavior, juvenile play and tickling. Furthermore, it was recently shown that rats emit 50-kHz calls after separation from conspecifics. The aim of the present study was to test the communicative value of such 50-kHz calls. In a first experiment, conducted in juvenile rats situated singly on a radial maze apparatus, we showed that 50-kHz calls can induce behavioral activation and approach responses, which were selective to 50-kHz signals, since presentation of 22-kHz calls, considered to be aversive or threat signals, led to behavioral inhibition. In two other experiments, we used either natural 50-kHz calls, which had been previously recorded from other rats, or artificial sine wave stimuli, which were identical to these calls with respect to peak frequency, call length and temporal appearance. These signals were presented to either juvenile (Exp. 2) or adult (Exp. 3) male rats. Our data clearly show that 50-kHz signals can induce approach behavior, an effect, which was more pronounced in juvenile rats and which was not selective to natural calls, especially in adult rats. The recipient rats also emitted some 50-kHz calls in response to call presentation, but this effect was observed only in adult subjects. Together, our data show that 50-kHz calls can serve communicative purposes, namely as a social signal, which increases the likelihood of approach in the recipient conspecific.

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“…A short period of social isolation has been shown to boost the rate of ticklinginduced 50-kHz USVs [51,53] by enhancing the social motivation of the animals. Rats emitting high numbers of tickling-induced 50-kHz USVs have been shown to approach the hand of the tickling experimenter with a short latency period [54]. In addition to conveying information appertaining to affective states, 50-kHz USVs are suggested to fulfil important communicative functions and to be involved in the establishment and maintenance of close social contacts [44,[55][56][57][58].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduction in 50-kHz call-numbers and suppression of tickling-associated positive affective behaviour after lesioning of the lateral hypothalamic parvafox nucleus in rats

Roccaro-Waldmeyer

Babalian

Müller

et al. 2016

Behavioural Brain Research

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h i g h l i g h t s• Wistar rats were tickled before and after excitotoxic lesioning of the lateral hypothalamic parvafox nucleus.• Ultrasonic vocalisations (USVs) that were emitted during the tickling of rats and their tendency to approach and follow the experimenter's hand were analysed.• Lesioning was considered successful if the number of parvalbuminimmunoreactive (PV-ir) cells in the area of the parvafox nucleus was reduced beyond a threshold level.• Rats with bilaterally successful lesions manifested the most profound surgery-associated reduction in the number of 50-kHz USVs and in the tendency to approach and follow the experimenter's hand.• Positive correlations were found between each of the four investigated parameters. g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c tThe parvafox nucleus is located ventrolaterally in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA). Its core and shell are composed of neurons expressing the calcium-binding protein parvalbumin (PV) and the transcription factor Foxb1, respectively. Given the known functions of the LHA and that the parvafox nucleus receives afferents from the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and projects to the periaqueductal gray matter, a functional role of this entity in the expression of positive emotions has been postulated.The purpose of the present study was to ascertain whether the deletion of neurons in the parvafox nucleus influenced the tickling-induced 50-kHz calls, which are thought to reflect positive affective states, in rats. To this end, tickling of the animals (heterospecific play) was combined with intracerebral injections of the excitotoxin kainic acid into the parvafox nucleus.The most pronounced surgery-associated reduction in 50-kHz call-numbers was observed in the group of rats in which, on the basis of PV-immunoreactive-cell counts in the parvafox nucleus, bilateral lesions had been successfully produced. Two other parameters that were implemented to quantify positive affective behaviour, namely, an approach towards and a following of the hand of the tickling * Corresponding author at: Institute of Anatomy, University of Fribourg, Rte A. Gockel 1, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.E-mail address: marco.celio@unifr.ch (M.R. Celio). 1Published in which should be cited to refer to this work.http://doc.rero.ch experimenter, were likewise most markedly suppressed in the group of rats with bilaterally successful lesions. Furthermore, positive correlations were found between each of the investigated parameters. Our data afford evidence that the parvafox nucleus plays a role in the production of 50-kHz calls in rats, and, more generally, in the expression of positive emotions.

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“Laughing” rats and the evolutionary antecedents of human joy?

Cited by 400 publications

References 76 publications

The animal nature of spontaneous human laughter

The animal nature of spontaneous human laughter

Social Transmission of Avoidance Behavior Under Situational Change in Learned and Unlearned Rats

Reduction in 50-kHz call-numbers and suppression of tickling-associated positive affective behaviour after lesioning of the lateral hypothalamic parvafox nucleus in rats

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