Jackson R. Ham

Interested in studying the #social #brain? Consider investigating #play #behavior in rats 🐀 to do so! In our 🚨 new 🚨 opinion paper in @FrontiersIn Behavioural Neuroscience, Serge & Viv Pellis, @achte107, & I discuss how studying play provides insights into the brain 🧠. 1/6

OUT NOW in @EJNeuroscience 🧠🐀 When given a choice, who do juvenile rats choose to play with? In this group-play paradigm, males preferentially directed rough-and-tumble play toward females, while females showed flexible, individual-specific partner preferences. Even more striking: sex differences in play frequency were context-dependent—females played less only in mixed-sex groups. These findings reveal two distinct sex effects in social play: partner choice and play initiation—and show that social context powerfully shapes behavior. Congrats to Ham, Pellis & McDonald! 🔬 @FENSorg @WileyBrainPsych 🔗 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ej…

New Research: Juvenile male rats form preferences based on strain when playing in groups but not in pairs frontiersin.org/articles/10.33… in the Ethological neuroscience collection #FrontiersIn #Behavioralneuroscience

@HenryYin19 Thanks, Dr. Yin.

Interesting perspective on social interactions. frontiersin.org/journals/behav…

Proud of this paper! In collab with S. Pellis and C. Burke we show that rats display individual differences in play and homeostatically adjust play based on their own preference and their play-partner. doi.org/10.1016/j.bepr…

Ever wonder just how much peers might influence early social development? It’s all here in our new paper! frontiersin.org/articles/10.33… #science #rescue #rats #play #socialdevelopment #behavioralneuroscience #womeninscience #newpaperalert

@JaclynAubin @GREMM_ @Raincoast @iBioUWindsor @DMennill @Marine_Valeria I’ve seen this lots with the Somerset Island population, over multiple years.

Happy to share our latest study on tickling and play responses in the brain that is out now in @NeuroCellPress! @nataliegloveli @misnaej

@orca199 Yes! We published a paper titled “Social games that belugas play” in the International Journal of Play in 2022. With that paper, we included supplemental videos. You will find the mouth game, as well as six other games, depicted here: figshare.com/articles/media…

@jacksonhammy It was very interesting! thank you. I want to see the beluga's play behavior. Could you share a video or link if possible.

シロイルカ(ベルーガ)が2個体でお互いの口を噛み合わせる行動を調べた論文。幼い個体が行うことが多く成長に伴い頻度が減る。また、同じ性別で行われることが多いとのこと。お互いを傷つける様子はなく、社会性や運動能力を試す「遊び」ではとのこと。 #やぎの論文紹介 doi.org/10.1002/zoo.21…

Selected talk #1 is about social play in rats and social exclusion, many thanks to @jacksonhammy 🐭 #Erice2023PLAYFULSOCIETIES

@AndrewIwaniuk Congratulations, Andy!!

@AndrewIwaniuk @kathandkim @lsf58

Thank you @ULFAssociation for your support. ✊

What a year! I got married, travelled to Europe for the first time, worked with @achte107, and published 9 papers in 2022 with 5 more accepted (some with revisions) for publication in 2023. Thank you to everyone who made this year possible!! Goodbye 2022, hello 2023!

Unions = better wages, benefits and conditions of work!

@ThePhDPlace Back to the Netherlands to work with @achte107 !!

Imagine you have an unlimited research budget to travel, where would you go and why?

@achte107 Thank you!!

Exciting research on play!

Thank you to my co-authors for making this article possible and to the Editors of this special issue in the International Journal of Play! (4/4)

Belugas also engaged in object-assisted self-handicapping in object play (very meta!) where they covered their eyes while playing with objects or put objects on their flukes while pushing an object forward (see below). (3/4)

I am excited to share our 🚨NEW🚨 article on object play in #belugas. In short: belugas self-handicap in #object #play, a phenomenon frequently seen in social play and locomotor play. (1/4) tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…