Panksepp has conducted many experiments; in one with rats, he found that the rats showed signs of fear when cat hair was placed close to them, even though they had never been anywhere near a cat.[5] Panksepp theorized from this experiment that it is possible laboratory research could routinely be skewed due to researchers with pet cats.[5] He attempted to replicate the experiment using dog hair, but the rats displayed no signs of fear.[5]
In the 1999 documentary Why Dogs Smile and Chimpanzees Cry, he is shown to comment on the research of joy in rats: the tickling of domesticated rats made them produce a high-pitch sound which was hypothetically identified as laughter.
Panksepp is also well known for publishing a paper in 1979 suggesting that opioid peptides could play a role in the etiology of autism, which proposed that autism may be "an emotional disturbance arising from an upset in the opiate systems in the brain".[6]
Temple Grandin draws extensively on Panksepp's work in describing how an appreciation of the primal emotions of PLAY, PANIC/GRIEF, FEAR, RAGE, SEEKING, LUST and CARE and what triggers them can improve human care of stock animals and the welfare of companion animals.[7]
Panksepp, J., and Biven, L. (2012). The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotion. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. W W Norton page
Panksepp J (Ed.) (2004) A Textbook of Biological Psychiatry, New York, Wiley
Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions. New York: Oxford University Press.
Panksepp, J (Ed.) (1996). Advances in Biological Psychiatry, Vol. 2, Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Panksepp, J (Ed.) (1995). Advances in Biological Psychiatry, Vol. 1, Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Clynes, M. and Panksepp, J. (Eds.) (1988). Emotions and Psychopathology, New York, Plenum Press.
Morgane, J. P., and Panksepp, J. (Eds.). (1981). Handbook of the Hypothalamus: Vol. 4 : Part B. Behavioral Studies of the Hypothalamus. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc.
Morgane, J. P., and Panksepp, J. (Eds.). (1980). Handbook of the Hypothalamus: Vol. 3 : Part A. Behavioral Studies of the Hypothalamus. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc.
Morgane, J. P., and Panksepp, J. (Eds.). (1980). Handbook of the Hypothalamus: Vol. 2 : Physiology of the Hypothalamus. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc.
Morgane, J. P., and Panksepp, J. (Eds.). (1979). Handbook of the Hypothalamus: Vol. 1 : Anatomy of the Hypothalamus. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc.
^Panksepp, J (1992). "A critical role for "affective neuroscience" in resolving what is basic about basic emotions". Psychological Review. 99 (3): 554–60. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.99.3.554. PMID1502276.
^Panksepp, J; Burgdorf, J. (October 2000). "50k-Hz chirping (laughter?) in response to conditioned and unconditioned tickle-induced reward in rats: effects of social housing and genetic variables". Behavioral Brain Research. 115 (1): 25–38. doi:10.1016/s0166-4328(00)00238-2. PMID10996405.