M Pelli
Biographic Data
| ID | 40346 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M Pelli |
| GIVEN NAMES | M |
| FAMILY NAME | Pelli |
| SIGNATURE | PELLI M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Lethbridge |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1172-0658 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 85 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1987 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The spectre and promise of species diversity
Over the past 50–60 years, we have made huge progress in understanding play, as we have identified some of the underlying mechanisms and characterized some of the functional benefits it can provide in a few of the most playful species, including our own. Yet a comprehensive framework that can make sense of the myriad patterns and its peculiar distribution in the Animal Kingdom remains elusive. Only three of the 33 major branches of animals contai…
The evolution of aggressive and amicable play fighting in primates
Play fighting involves competing for an advantage, which can be derived from behavior typical of conspecific aggression, predation, sexual and other affinitive contexts. Here the phylogenetic distribution of aggressive play fighting (involving biting) and amicable play fighting (involving grooming and mounting) in juveniles of 48 species of primates was analyzed. Both aggressive and amicable play fighting were likely equally present in ancestral …
Self-handicapping in object play
Although observed in animals from various taxa, object play is not well studied. While studying object play in managed care belugas (Delphinapterus leucas), we noticed that, in some cases, the belugas self-handicap their play. For example, a beluga may push a ball onto a ledge, so that the object can only be reached by the beluga beaching itself. Self-handicapping has been described in locomotor and social play, but is rarely, if ever, reported i…
What do you hear, what do you say? Ultrasonic calls as signals during play fighting in rats
Communication during play fighting can be crucial in facilitating and sustaining contact. As juvenile rats play mostly in the dark, visual signals are unlikely to fulfill this function. However, during play, rats have a variety of ultrasonic calls that are emitted and there is growing evidence that some of these calls may provide a means of communication. Particular calls are associated with particular actions and in the present paper we show tha…
Male Long Evans rats reared with a Fischer-344 peer during the juvenile period show deficits in social competency
Rats that are deprived of play during the juvenile period develop into adults that have a host of socio-cognitive impairments. Thus, it has been hypothesized that experiencing play fighting during the juvenile period refines executive functions. The present study assesses the social ability of adult, male Long-Evans hooded (LE) rats that have been reared with either a same age and sex LE rat or a Fischer-344 (F344), a low playing strain. As adult…
Introduction to the special issue
Rough-and-Tumble Play
The role of play in human development has long been the subject of controversy. This book examines the development of children's play through a rigorous and multidisciplinary approach.
The Brain as the Engine of Sex Differences in the Organization of Movement in Rats
Sex Differences in Play Fighting Revisited
Sexual and aggressive play fighting of sibling Richardson’s ground squirrels
Play fighting in many species of squirrels can involve sexual play and aggressive play, both of which can lead to wrestling which appears superficially similar. Such convergence can make scoring of the relative frequencies of these two types of play difficult and can lead to the mistaken conclusion that they grade into one another. In this study, both staged laboratory encounters between sibling pairs and spontaneous encounters between siblings i…
The organization of play fighting in the grasshopper mouse (Onychomys leucogaster)
The body targets contacted, the type of contact made, and the patterns of defense and counterattack elicited by those attacks are examined in the play fighting of captive male and female pairs of grasshopper mice. The nape was the most frequently contacted body target, irrespective of the type of contact made, be it nosing, allogrooming, biting, or striking with a forepaw. The types of defense varied with both body area contacted and type of atta…
Playful defensive responses in adult male rats depend on the status of the unfamiliar opponent
Adult male rats reared as pairmates from weaning were tested in a neutral arena with both members of another pair (one at a time). The unfamiliar pairs were found to engage in play fighting, although they were more likely to escalate the encounter into serious fighting than were pairs of familiar rats. Based on their within-home pair behavior, each pairmate was designated as a dominant or a subordinate. When the test encounters between unfamiliar…
Targets and tactics
Even though injury and death are more common consequences of fighting among animals than once believed, they are still relatively infrequent. Modern evolutionary models of animal combat have emphasized that given the threat of retaliation, animals only escalate to more injurious fighting if the benefits outweigh the costs, and then only if threat and bluff fail to achieve the goal. Such models stress the role of communication as to whether animal…
Targets and tactics
Even though injury and death are more common consequences of fighting among animals than once believed, they are still relatively infrequent. Modern evolutionary models of animal combat have emphasized that given the threat of retaliation, animals only escalate to more injurious fighting if the benefits outweigh the costs, and then only if threat and bluff fail to achieve the goal. Such models stress the role of communication as to whether animal…
Organization of sex-typical patterns of defense during food protection in the rat
Feeding rats defend a food item from an approaching conspecific by turning away, laterally, about 180°. Females and males use a different composition of movements and stepping patterns to perform these defensive dodges. This study was designed to examine the role of the robber's sex on the execution of sex-typical patterns of dodging. All subjects were tested with a partner of each sex. During dodging, females used the female-typical pattern of p…
Targets, tactics, and the open mouth face during play fighting in three species of primates
The play fighting of many mammals involves the nonserious use of behavior patterns derived from serious fighting. A major question of theoretical importance has been that of how, given this overlap in patterns of behavior, the animals can distinguish between playful and nonplayful intent. One proposed solution is that animals use play signals to inform each other about the playful intent of their actions. The most widely reported play signal amon…
Dominance and age-related changes in the play fighting of intact and post-weaning castrated male rats (Rattus norvegicus)
The play fighting behaviour of male rats (Rattus norvegicus) castrated at weaning was compared to that of intact controls during the juvenile and post-pubertal phases of development. Following puberty, both the castrated and intact animals exhibited an age-related change in their play fighting; the frequency of initiating play fighting decreased and juvenile patterns of playful defense were replaced by more adult-like patterns. As these changes o…
Lateral display as a combat tactic in richardson's ground squirrelSpermophilus richardsonii
During fighting, adult ground squirrels frequently face each other laterally, arch the back, and piloerect the tail. In a diurnal species, such distinctive visual cues seem consistent with the suggestion that the lateral display serves a communicatory function. However, a detailed analysis of videotaped sequences of free-living Richardson's ground squirrels from two consecutive mating seasons suggested that the lateral maneuver has a functional r…
Lateral display as a combat tactic in richardson's ground squirrel Spermophilus richardsonii
During fighting, adult ground squirrels frequently face each other laterally, arch the back, and piloerect the tail. In a diurnal species, such distinctive visual cues seem consistent with the suggestion that the lateral display serves a communicatory function. However, a detailed analysis of videotaped sequences of free-living Richardson's ground squirrels from two consecutive mating seasons suggested that the lateral maneuver has a functional r…
Influence of dominance on the development of play fighting in pairs of male Syrian golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus)
In the highly social rat, male juvenile and adult subordinates initiate more playful contacts with dominant pairmates than vice versa. This study examined the effect of dominance on playful contacts in the relatively asocial golden hamster. Pairs of male hamsters were reared together from weaning, and their play was filmed in the juvenile (28-36 days) and the young adult (60-70 days) stages of development. By the adult stage, it became clear that…
Analysis of the targets and tactics of conspecific attack and predatory attack in northern grasshopper miceonychomys leucogaster
Comparisons of tactics of fighting between species are often difficult to make since the body targets attacked may differ. Thus it becomes difficult to assess whether differences in fighting tactics are due to species-specific differences in the tactics themselves or due to the different targets attacked. A solution to this problem is to analyse the tactics of a species that attacks different targets under different circumstances. In this way, di…
Neonatal testosterone augmentation increases juvenile play fighting but does not influence the adult dominance relationships of male rats
Neonatal male rats were either injected subcutaneously with testosterone propionate (TP) or oil vehicle. When weaned, each treated pup was paired with an untreated male sibling. The play fighting of TP-and oil-treated rats were compared at the juvenile phase (30–36 days), and in adulthood (84–90 days). In the juvenile phase, the rate of initiating playful attacks was significantly greater for TP-treated rats. Playful defense in response to such a…
Disentangling the contribution of the attacker from that of defender in the differences in the intraspecific fighting in two species of voles
In a previous study we found that in the intraspecific, resident-intruder fights of males of two vole species there were significant differences in the frequency of use of some of the behavior patterns used for attack and defense. To determine whether the species differences were due to differences in the behavior of the attacker (resident), defender (intruder), or some combination of both, a detailed frame-by-frame analysis of videorecorded sequ…
Juvenilized play fighting in subordinate male rats
As pairs of male juvenile sibling rats that are housed together become sexually mature, they develop a dominance-subordinance relationship. These dominance relationships appear to be reflected in the play fighting of the pairmates both as juveniles and as young adults, in that the seemingly subordinate partner initiates more playful attacks at both ages. However, as adults, even though it is the subordinate that initiates more playful attacks, it…
Supine defense in the intraspecific fighting of male house micemus domesticus
House mice have been reported rarely to perform the supine behavior pattern as a defensive tactic during intraspecific fighting. However, in this study of intraspecific fighting by male mice, it is shown that mice do indeed rotate to supine. This maneuver is used to evade or extricate themselves from bites to the lower dorsum by the attacking opponent. Once free from the bite the defender does not remain supine, but will immediately turn to prone…
Rough-and-Tumble Play
The role of play in human development has long been the subject of controversy. This book examines the development of children's play through a rigorous and multidisciplinary approach.
Different levels of complexity in the play‐fighting by muroid rodents appear to result from different levels of intensity of attack and defense
Play‐fighting in deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii , prairie voles, Microtus ochrogaster , and montane voles, M. Montanus , was compared to that of laboratory rats, Rattus norvegicus . Play in rats appears more complex for two reasons: 1) more of the playful contacts elicit defensive behaviors, and 2) more of these defenses lead to counterattacks, and hence, role reversals between attackers and defenders. Neither high levels of defense, a…
Male Long Evans rats reared with a Fischer-344 peer during the juvenile period show deficits in social competency
Rats that are deprived of play during the juvenile period develop into adults that have a host of socio-cognitive impairments. Thus, it has been hypothesized that experiencing play fighting during the juvenile period refines executive functions. The present study assesses the social ability of adult, male Long-Evans hooded (LE) rats that have been reared with either a same age and sex LE rat or a Fischer-344 (F344), a low playing strain. As adult…
Sex Differences in Play Fighting Revisited
What do you hear, what do you say? Ultrasonic calls as signals during play fighting in rats
Communication during play fighting can be crucial in facilitating and sustaining contact. As juvenile rats play mostly in the dark, visual signals are unlikely to fulfill this function. However, during play, rats have a variety of ultrasonic calls that are emitted and there is growing evidence that some of these calls may provide a means of communication. Particular calls are associated with particular actions and in the present paper we show tha…
Sexual and aggressive play fighting of sibling Richardson’s ground squirrels
Play fighting in many species of squirrels can involve sexual play and aggressive play, both of which can lead to wrestling which appears superficially similar. Such convergence can make scoring of the relative frequencies of these two types of play difficult and can lead to the mistaken conclusion that they grade into one another. In this study, both staged laboratory encounters between sibling pairs and spontaneous encounters between siblings i…
Problems of Definition and of Identifying Appropriate Levels of Analysis
Although the target article, which attempts to clarify how physiological knowledge may resolve and guide research into aggressive behavior at a political level, raises many important issues, and in particular, draws attention to several specific areas where analyses of physiology and social behavior may be fruitfully pursued, it fails, in my view, to provide a suitable framework for such an endeavor for two reasons: one, a truncated definition of…
Play-fighting differs from serious fighting in both target of attack and tactics of fighting in the laboratory ratRattus norvegicus
Play-fighting is often difficult to differentiate from inhibited or immature serious fighting because both may utilize many of the same behavior patterns. In the rat the two behaviors involve different targets of attack. During play-fighting, snout or oral contact is directed at the opponent's nape of the neck, whereas during serious fighting, male residents mostly direct their bites at the intruder's rump. Although similar to those used in serio…
Identification of the possible origin of the body target that differentiates play fighting from serious fighting in syrian golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus)
Play fighting in the Syrian Golden hamster Mesocricetus auratus can be distinguished from serious fighting by the targets attacked in each case. In play fighting, the animals attack and defend the cheeks and cheek pouches, whereas in serious fighting they attack and defend the rump and lower flanks. Since play typically involves the use of behaviors borrowed from other functional contexts, this paper investigates the origin of the cheek target du…
Agonistic versus amicable targets of attack and defense
Play-fighting appears to involve the behavior patterns of attack and defense otherwise seen in serious fighting. The degree of similarity, however, depends on the body targets attacked and defended during these forms of fighting. For many taxa, including diverse mammalian families and some birds, the same targets are attacked and defended during both play-fighting and serious fighting. However, for several species of muroid rodents, the targets o…
Different levels of complexity in the play‐fighting by muroid rodents appear to result from different levels of intensity of attack and defense
Play‐fighting in deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii , prairie voles, Microtus ochrogaster , and montane voles, M. Montanus , was compared to that of laboratory rats, Rattus norvegicus . Play in rats appears more complex for two reasons: 1) more of the playful contacts elicit defensive behaviors, and 2) more of these defenses lead to counterattacks, and hence, role reversals between attackers and defenders. Neither high levels of defense, a…
Targets of attack and defense in play-fighting of the Djungarian hamsterPhodopus campbelli
Analysis of the body targets attacked and defended during play-fighting by juvenile Djungarian hamsters Phodopus campbelli revealed that about 70% of all attacks were directed at the mouth. If successfully contacted, the mouth was briefly licked and nuzzled. The remaining playful attacks were gentle bites directed at the rump, and to a lesser extent, the top of the head. During serious fighting the top of the head and the rump are targets of atta…
Role reversal changes during the ontogeny of play fighting in male rats
From weaning until sexual maturity, the rates at which young male rats hold each other supine during play fighting appear to become progressively asymmetrical. These changes have been previously thought to reflect an initial lack of dominance and a later development of dominance-subordinance relationships. In this paper it is shown that pairs of male rats exhibit asymmetries in playful attack and playful defense throughout development. The change…
Targets and tactics of agonistic and precopulatory behavior in montane and prairie voles
Play-fighting by juvenile montane and prairie voles involves attack and defense of the head, neck and shoulders. Since during play animals typically borrow behavior patterns from other functional contexts, two adult behavioral contexts were compared to juvenile play-fighting. These were serious fighting and sexual encounters. During serious fighting in a resident-intruder paradigm, most bites are directed at the rump and lower flanks. During sexu…
Analysis of the targets and tactics of conspecific attack and predatory attack in northern grasshopper miceonychomys leucogaster
Comparisons of tactics of fighting between species are often difficult to make since the body targets attacked may differ. Thus it becomes difficult to assess whether differences in fighting tactics are due to species-specific differences in the tactics themselves or due to the different targets attacked. A solution to this problem is to analyse the tactics of a species that attacks different targets under different circumstances. In this way, di…
Neonatal testosterone augmentation increases juvenile play fighting but does not influence the adult dominance relationships of male rats
Neonatal male rats were either injected subcutaneously with testosterone propionate (TP) or oil vehicle. When weaned, each treated pup was paired with an untreated male sibling. The play fighting of TP-and oil-treated rats were compared at the juvenile phase (30–36 days), and in adulthood (84–90 days). In the juvenile phase, the rate of initiating playful attacks was significantly greater for TP-treated rats. Playful defense in response to such a…
Disentangling the contribution of the attacker from that of defender in the differences in the intraspecific fighting in two species of voles
In a previous study we found that in the intraspecific, resident-intruder fights of males of two vole species there were significant differences in the frequency of use of some of the behavior patterns used for attack and defense. To determine whether the species differences were due to differences in the behavior of the attacker (resident), defender (intruder), or some combination of both, a detailed frame-by-frame analysis of videorecorded sequ…
Juvenilized play fighting in subordinate male rats
As pairs of male juvenile sibling rats that are housed together become sexually mature, they develop a dominance-subordinance relationship. These dominance relationships appear to be reflected in the play fighting of the pairmates both as juveniles and as young adults, in that the seemingly subordinate partner initiates more playful attacks at both ages. However, as adults, even though it is the subordinate that initiates more playful attacks, it…
Supine defense in the intraspecific fighting of male house micemus domesticus
House mice have been reported rarely to perform the supine behavior pattern as a defensive tactic during intraspecific fighting. However, in this study of intraspecific fighting by male mice, it is shown that mice do indeed rotate to supine. This maneuver is used to evade or extricate themselves from bites to the lower dorsum by the attacking opponent. Once free from the bite the defender does not remain supine, but will immediately turn to prone…
Influence of dominance on the development of play fighting in pairs of male Syrian golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus)
In the highly social rat, male juvenile and adult subordinates initiate more playful contacts with dominant pairmates than vice versa. This study examined the effect of dominance on playful contacts in the relatively asocial golden hamster. Pairs of male hamsters were reared together from weaning, and their play was filmed in the juvenile (28-36 days) and the young adult (60-70 days) stages of development. By the adult stage, it became clear that…
Dominance and age-related changes in the play fighting of intact and post-weaning castrated male rats (Rattus norvegicus)
The play fighting behaviour of male rats (Rattus norvegicus) castrated at weaning was compared to that of intact controls during the juvenile and post-pubertal phases of development. Following puberty, both the castrated and intact animals exhibited an age-related change in their play fighting; the frequency of initiating play fighting decreased and juvenile patterns of playful defense were replaced by more adult-like patterns. As these changes o…
Lateral display as a combat tactic in richardson's ground squirrelSpermophilus richardsonii
During fighting, adult ground squirrels frequently face each other laterally, arch the back, and piloerect the tail. In a diurnal species, such distinctive visual cues seem consistent with the suggestion that the lateral display serves a communicatory function. However, a detailed analysis of videotaped sequences of free-living Richardson's ground squirrels from two consecutive mating seasons suggested that the lateral maneuver has a functional r…
Lateral display as a combat tactic in richardson's ground squirrel Spermophilus richardsonii
During fighting, adult ground squirrels frequently face each other laterally, arch the back, and piloerect the tail. In a diurnal species, such distinctive visual cues seem consistent with the suggestion that the lateral display serves a communicatory function. However, a detailed analysis of videotaped sequences of free-living Richardson's ground squirrels from two consecutive mating seasons suggested that the lateral maneuver has a functional r…
Targets and tactics
Even though injury and death are more common consequences of fighting among animals than once believed, they are still relatively infrequent. Modern evolutionary models of animal combat have emphasized that given the threat of retaliation, animals only escalate to more injurious fighting if the benefits outweigh the costs, and then only if threat and bluff fail to achieve the goal. Such models stress the role of communication as to whether animal…
Targets and tactics
Even though injury and death are more common consequences of fighting among animals than once believed, they are still relatively infrequent. Modern evolutionary models of animal combat have emphasized that given the threat of retaliation, animals only escalate to more injurious fighting if the benefits outweigh the costs, and then only if threat and bluff fail to achieve the goal. Such models stress the role of communication as to whether animal…
Organization of sex-typical patterns of defense during food protection in the rat
Feeding rats defend a food item from an approaching conspecific by turning away, laterally, about 180°. Females and males use a different composition of movements and stepping patterns to perform these defensive dodges. This study was designed to examine the role of the robber's sex on the execution of sex-typical patterns of dodging. All subjects were tested with a partner of each sex. During dodging, females used the female-typical pattern of p…
Targets, tactics, and the open mouth face during play fighting in three species of primates
The play fighting of many mammals involves the nonserious use of behavior patterns derived from serious fighting. A major question of theoretical importance has been that of how, given this overlap in patterns of behavior, the animals can distinguish between playful and nonplayful intent. One proposed solution is that animals use play signals to inform each other about the playful intent of their actions. The most widely reported play signal amon…
Playful defensive responses in adult male rats depend on the status of the unfamiliar opponent
Adult male rats reared as pairmates from weaning were tested in a neutral arena with both members of another pair (one at a time). The unfamiliar pairs were found to engage in play fighting, although they were more likely to escalate the encounter into serious fighting than were pairs of familiar rats. Based on their within-home pair behavior, each pairmate was designated as a dominant or a subordinate. When the test encounters between unfamiliar…
The organization of play fighting in the grasshopper mouse (Onychomys leucogaster)
The body targets contacted, the type of contact made, and the patterns of defense and counterattack elicited by those attacks are examined in the play fighting of captive male and female pairs of grasshopper mice. The nape was the most frequently contacted body target, irrespective of the type of contact made, be it nosing, allogrooming, biting, or striking with a forepaw. The types of defense varied with both body area contacted and type of atta…
Sexual and aggressive play fighting of sibling Richardson’s ground squirrels
Play fighting in many species of squirrels can involve sexual play and aggressive play, both of which can lead to wrestling which appears superficially similar. Such convergence can make scoring of the relative frequencies of these two types of play difficult and can lead to the mistaken conclusion that they grade into one another. In this study, both staged laboratory encounters between sibling pairs and spontaneous encounters between siblings i…
Sex Differences in Play Fighting Revisited
Psychology (31 works) · Biology (21 works) · Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior (18 works) · Primate Behavior and Ecology (15 works) · Animal Behavior and Reproduction (14 works) · Aggression (13 works) · Ecology (12 works) · Developmental psychology (11 works) · Medicine (11 works) · Social Psychology (10 works)