Just for the fun of it

摘要

Perhaps because of its non-serious nature, play has been a neglected, even embarrassing subject for serious scientists. Little work has beenrndone on what it's for - that is, its evolutionary function. The Playful Brain has a stab at rectifying this, with some success. Play is so complicated, say the authors, that to understand it we need to build up a towering "layer cake" of information about neurology, physiology and juvenile development. Primates are difficult to experiment on -for this reason, and because of the authors' area of expertise, we are plunged straight into a detailed analysis of play fighting in rats.