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Explore groundbreaking research on mammalian play behavior and its neural foundations through an innovative neuroscience approach in this 30-minute webinar. Discover how researchers developed a novel "Hide and Seek" behavioral paradigm with rats in a large-scale naturalistic environment, moving beyond traditional laboratory constraints to study animal cognition in more authentic settings. Learn about the strategic gameplay behaviors rats exhibited, their spontaneous development of game-specific vocalizations, and how wireless recording technologies enabled unprecedented insights into brain-behavior relationships. Examine the revolutionary methodology of using unsupervised clustering of neural population data to uncover unexpected neural-behavioral associations without experimental bias. Understand how this research challenges the field's reliance on inbred animal models in artificial settings and establishes foundations for studying wild animal cognition using advanced neurotechnologies. Gain insights into the broader implications for naturalistic neuroscience research and the potential for extending these methodologies to study animal behavior and neural activity in wild environments.
