The role of the medial prefrontal cortex in regulating interanimal coordination of movements.
Abstract
Rats with juvenile play experience display a greater ability in coordinating their movements with social partners than those deprived of such experience, and this may be due to the play-induced neural restructuring of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The present study investigates the role of the mPFC in interanimal coordination. Rats with and without bilateral mPFC lesions were tested on a robbing-and-dodging task. This food protection task measures the ability of rats to protect pieces of food by gaining and maintaining an interanimal distance between themselves and the rat attempting to rob the food. Given that mPFC lesions have been associated with sensory and motor deficits, the same rats were also subjected to a task to measure skilled motor movements. Rats with bilateral mPFC lesions had more food stolen and displayed an inability to maintain interanimal distance with partner, but did not exhibit any motor or sensory deficits. These findings suggest that the mPFC is involved in interanimal coordination and that the play-induced neural restructuring of this area may account for the enhanced coordination seen in rats with prior play experience.
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The medial prefrontal cortex has a crucial role in coordinating actions with partners as juveniles and as adults in both playful and non-playful social interactions.
“and the mPFC has a crucial role in coordinating actions with partners as juveniles and as adults in both playful and non-playful social interactions (Bell et al., 2009; Van Kerkhof et al., 2013; Himmler et al., 2014; Stark and Pellis, 2020).”
From The rough-and-tumble play of rats as a natural behavior suitable for studying the social brain (2022) · cites this paper as Himmler et al., 2014
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- Authors
- Himmler, B. T., Bell, H. C., Horwood, L., Harker, A., Kolb, B., & Pellis, S. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Lethbridge (CA)
- Venue
- Behavioral Neuroscience
- Published
- 2014-10
- Volume
- 128
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 603-613
- ISSN
- 0735-7044 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-0084
- OpenAlex
- W2319939744
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 2.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Behavioral Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Alberta Innovates Health Solutions
- Norlien Foundation
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Keywords
- medial prefrontal cortex, social play, food protection, interpersonal distance, social behavior, rats
- MeSH terms
- Analysis of Variance, Animals, Competitive Behavior, Food, Male, Psychomotor Performance, Prefrontal Cortex, Rats, Long-Evans
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