A predominant part of life and brain development in various species, particularly humans is play, which is an activity devoted to a curious mode of experimenting and taking on roles. Despite the prevalence of play among younger children, as humans age and go through schooling, play behaviors seem to diminish. Though this may seem logical because play is often associated with childlike behaviors, the fundamentality of play is dramatically overlooked. Particularly, just by changing one’s mindset into a mode of exploration facilitates astounding neurological effects that outweigh rigid repetitive practice, not only by accelerating learning but also by improving cognition, enhancing performance, and mitigating stress.
In psychology, a more technical definition of play is an “activity done for its own sake, characterized by means rather than ends” (qtd. In Gokhan and Tugrul). In other words, when playing around, it is critical to emphasize the process, experimentation, and modes of thinking rather than if you ended up winning that game. For example, being in a play mindset means thinking – “If I do X what will happen? If I do Y what will happen?” – and trying different ideas.
How does play work in the brain and body?
Consisting of specific chemical changes and patterns of brain activation, play is intrinsic to animal behavior. Play has been present in animal evolution for a long time, involving circuitry that is in the deep, ancient regions of the brain, such as the brainstem, that was present in many species beyond mammals and birds that evolved before humans, describes Gordon Burghardt, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Tennessee.
Andrew Huberman, Neuroscientist and tenured Professor of Neurobiology at Stanford School of Medicine, describes how play works in the brain and body: During play, a region of the brain stem, the Periaqueductal Gray is active. It is rich with neurons that secrete endogenous, or naturally occurring, opioids in the brain, such as enkephalin. While also being a drug used in the medical field, opioids have natural pain-killing effects and feelings of euphoria in the brain and body.
The abundance of endogenous opioids in the brain has critical effects on the prefrontal cortex, which is a structure in the front of the brain that is involved with executive function, such as the ability to make predictions, plan, assess outcomes, etc. Fundamentally, the prefrontal cortex strives for efficiency, which can be rigid and exclusionary to other, more lenient or creative, modes of thinking.
“When endogenous opioids are in our system, when we’re in the mode of play, the prefrontal cortex starts seeing and exploring many more possibilities of how we interact with our environment, with others, and the roles that we can assume for ourselves” (Huberman).
Another critical neurochemical component of play is that it presents a low-stakes environment where the individual is not stressing about the outcome. The driving molecule of stress is epinephrine, also called adrenaline; having epinephrine in the brain can actually lead to diminished effects of play, according to Jaak Panksepp, a foundational psychobiologist and ecologist.
Essentially, play is low-stakes testing, experimenting, and expanding the brain capacity; this is defined by a neurological state of high endogenous opioids, and low adrenaline.
How can play improve cognition?
Studies show that play increases cognition. Piaget, Professor of Child Psychology at the University of Geneva, summarizes that play leads to cognitive development through emphasis on “imagination, animistic thinking, concrete and abstract thinking skills, and problem-solving skills included in the play process” (qtd. in Gunes “Personal play”).
Furthermore, a peer-reviewed study by Gokhan Gunes and Belma Tugrul, developmental psychologists, featuring child-development researchers, establishes that being in the mode of play during a game like chess has “positive effects on cognitive skills and academic success” (Sala and Gobet). Children “are more successful in conceptual development.” (Sigirtmac).
In addition, being in the mode of play during chess has been linked with working memory training, problem-solving, and choice evaluation (Gobet and Campitelli). However, these cognitive benefits are not only linked to chess; Burghardt, in an analysis of the evolutionary history of play, describes that play that “involves in active parries and thrusts, actions and reactions… may be a major source for such variability and enhanced learning abilities.” This suggests that the presence of higher cognition can be present in a variety of forms of play; being in the mode of play is more critical than the actual activity performed.
How does play increase neuroplasticity?
With enhanced cognition, play also comes with the neurological benefit of opening the portal to better learning. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change in response to experience. In essence, when one learns something, they are forming neural connections to be able to perform that activity. However, neuroplasticity doesn’t always occur passively. The human brain has a larger capacity to rewire from birth to around age 25; after this, it is more difficult to activate the rewiring of the brain as glial cells fill up space between neurons and neural circuits become stamped down (Huberman).
Nonetheless, there are still optimal chemical brain states that inspire neuroplasticity even in adulthood. In fact, play is one way to achieve neuroplasticity at any age. The high opioid, low adrenaline state with some degree of focus stimulates brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and other growth factors, that trigger the rewiring of brain circuitry and allow for it to expand (Huberman). Furthermore, a Harvard University study, published in the apex journal Nature Neuroscience, demonstrated that the “variability in motor movement, rather than the amount, leads to enhanced motor learning” (qtd. in Burghardt). This suggests that by doing drills and repetitions of the same movement, there is no neuroplasticity unless that activity is novel. Play allows for a mode of flexibility and activation of the prefrontal cortex that inspires a dynamic exploration of new movement patterns that would not be available in linear drilling and repeating the same task.
How does play reduce stress?
Karl Groos, Professor of Philosophical Biology and Animal Psychology, “emphasized that the aim of play is to achieve talent development and relaxation and defined play for both humans and other organisms as the behaviors that they develop instinctively to improve their individual talents and to escape from the stress of life.” (qtd. in Gunes “Play identity”).
Burgardt supports this ideology by stating that play has a promising role in regulating emotion and stress. Not only are endogenous opioids present that physiologically reduce stress, but the low-stakes environment reduces the psychological pressure regarding the need to win or perform well. Foundationally, play is able to reduce stress due to its intrinsic similarity to therapeutic techniques such as EMDR exposure therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and talk therapy (Huberman). All of these therapies are about exploring different contingencies and emotional states.
How to apply play to everyday life
Play has the capacity to enhance the mind through improving cognition and stimulating neuroplasticity, while also being a powerful tool in reducing stress. Coaches could utilize play in sports training to increase skill learning and mental ability of athletes supplement to physical training. Prompting innovation through flexible and creative thinking, play encourages increased performance and even increased entertainment for the crowd. Athletes would also be relieved from extensive mental health illness due to play’s chemical substrates of low-stress levels.
Moreover, patients in need of trauma treatment, especially those who cannot afford it, could utilize play as a portal to explore different contingencies and emotionalities in a safe way. Play should be encouraged in classrooms, camps, and extracurricular programs so that kids and adults could expand their ability to think, create, and take on different roles. Economically, large tech companies such as NASA and Apple will likely be in search of people who are tinkerers, who engage in play, innovating and thinking differently.
A recommendation for any adult is one hour a week of play, engaging in any novel activity while staying focused, tinkering, and exploring new ideas. This could be playing a board game, solving a puzzle, building with blocks, drawing a picture, playing an instrument, participating in a sport, or doing any activity with the mindset of observing and experimenting with new, novel approaches. After all, “Animals that engage in playful behaviors for the longest period of time are also the animals that have the greatest degree of neuroplasticity” (Huberman)
