Play time – The joy of experimenting with life Play, which may seem like a frivolous, unimportant behavior with no apparent purpose, has earned new respect as biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists and others see that play is indeed serious business and is perhaps equally important to other basic drives of sleep, rest, and food. Neuroscience research reveals that play-joy is a basic emotional system and essential in child development and adult creativity and learning. It has been suggested that play is an important behavioral tendency that does not require learning, is an “experience-expectant” process that has adaptive neurodevelopmental effects which promote later adaptive behaviors and which help program higher brain regions involved in emotional behaviors.