Laughter

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Late 19th century or early 20th century depiction of different stages of laughter on advertising cards

Laughter is an audible expression or appearance of happiness, or an inward feeling of joy and orgasmic stimulation (laughing on the inside). It may ensue (as a physiological reaction) from jokes, tickling, and other stimuli. Inhaling nitrous oxide can also induce laughter; other drugs, such as cannabis, can also induce episodes of strong laughter. Strong laughter can sometimes bring an onset of tears or even moderate muscular pain.

Laughter is a part of human behaviour regulated by the brain. Helping humans clarify their intentions in social interaction and providing an emotional context to conversations. Laughter is used as a signal for being part of a group — it signals acceptance and positive interactions with others. Laughter is sometimes seemingly contagious, and the laughter of one person can itself provoke laughter from others as a positive feedback.[1] An extreme case of this is the Tanganyika laughter epidemic. This may account in part for the popularity of laugh tracks in situation comedy television shows.

The study of humor and laughter, and its psychological and physiological effects on the human body is called gelotology.

Laughter is a common response to tickling

Recently researchers have shown infants as early as 17 days old have vocal laughing sounds or spontaneous laughter. Early Human Development 2006This conflicts with earlier studies indicating that babies usually start to laugh at about four months of age; J.Y.T. Greig writes, quoting ancient authors, that laughter is not believed to begin in a child until the child is forty days old. [2] "Laughter is Genetic" Robert R. Provine, Ph.D. has spent decades studying laughter. In his interview for WebMD, he indicated "Laughter is a mechanism everyone has; laughter is part of universal human vocabulary. There are thousands of languages, hundreds of thousands of dialects, but everyone speaks laughter in pretty much the same way.” Everyone can laugh. Babies have the ability to laugh before they ever speak. Children who are born blind and deaf still retain the ability to laugh.

Provine argues that “Laughter is primitive, an unconscious vocalization.” And if it seems you laugh more than others, Provine argues that it probably is genetic. In a study of the “Giggle Twins,” two exceptionally happy twins were separated at birth and not reunited until 43 years later. Provine reports that “until they met each other, neither of these exceptionally happy ladies had known anyone who laughed as much as she did.” They reported this even though they both had been brought together by their adoptive parents they indicated were “undemonstrative and dour.” Provine indicates that the twins “inherited some aspects of their laugh sound and pattern, readiness to laugh, and perhaps even taste in humor.” WebMD 2002

Raju Mandhyan states "The physical and psychological benefits of laughter come second only to the physical and psychological benefits of sex."

Norman Cousins developed a recovery program incorporating megadoses of Vitamin C, along with a positive attitude, love, faith, hope, and laughter induced by Marx Brothers films. "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep," he reported. "When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval." He wrote about these experiences in several books.[3][4]

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[edit] Gender differences

Men and women take jokes differently. A study that appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found in a study, 10 men and 10 women all watched 10 cartoons, rating them funny or not funny and if funny, how funny on a scale of 1–10. While doing this, their brains were scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Men and women for the most part agreed which cartoons were funny. However, their brains handled humor differently. Women’s brains showed more activity in certain areas, including the nucleus accumbens. When women viewed cartoons they did not find humorous, their nucleus accumbens had a “ho-hum response.” A man's nucleus accumbens did not react to funny cartoons, and its natural activity level dropped during unfunny cartoons.

Researchers suspect the element of surprise may be at the heart of the study. They suggested that maybe women did not expect the cartoons to be funny, while men did the opposite. When the men in the study “got what they expected, their nucleus accumbens were calm.” However, the women’s brains could have had increased activity when they were “pleasantly surprised” by the cartoons’ humour. Researchers also suspect that men might have been “let down by unfunny cartoons, causing a dip in that brain area’s activity.”

It was indicated that this study might be a clue about the different emotional responses between men and women and could help with depression research. The research suggests men and women “differ in how humour is used and appreciated,” says Allan Reiss, M.D. WebMD 2005

[edit] Therapeutic benefits

The analgesic effect of laughing has been showed in many studies[5]. This is especially available for the relief of chronic pain in arthritis, spine lesions, neurological diseases etc. Doctors are of opinion that laughing brings about the secretion of endorphins into blood. More than that, it is known that laughing is a strong muscle-relaxing method, which also relieves pain.

Laughter can also be called "inner jogging", because similar to morning jogging, the blood pressure increases and then it gradually lowers till it gets lower than the initial blood pressure. A person with hypertension, however, should not consider experimenting - laughing isn't a method of intensive therapy.[6]

Laughter is a type of respiratory gymnastics. It corresponds to the Sanskrit name of "hasya-yoga". "Ho-ho" goes from the diaphragm, "ha-ha" goes from the heart or from the thorax, "hi-hi" – from the 'third eye'. It would be perfect to learn and use all these types of laughing with therapeutic purposes, but the most important laugh today is considered to be the deep one, the so-called guffaw.

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine led by Michael Miller, M.D. have identified a link between laughter and blood vessel dilation. Specifically, they found that after watching a video that induced sustained laughter over a 20 minute period, a 35% increase in brachial artery dilation was observed. The researchers hypothesize that emotional laughter releases endorphins that activate the endothelium to release nitric oxide thereby resulting in vessel dilation and increased blood flow. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=laughter-proves-good-medi

The laughter is considered to be a method of fighting stress (it inhibits the secretion of 4 main stress hormones). Recently, Japanese scientists discovered that laughing directly influences glucose level in blood.

Greek researchers have found through an experiment that 10–15 minutes of laughing burn from 10 to 40 calories. Laughing for this length of time daily would lead to a weight loss of almost 4.5 lb (2 kg) per year.[7]

[edit] Laughter and the brain

Principal fissures and lobes of the cerebrum viewed laterally. (Frontal lobe is blue, temporal lobe is green.)

Modern neurophysiology states that laughter is linked with the activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which produces endorphins after a rewarding activity.

Research has shown that parts of the limbic system are involved in laughter[citation needed]. The limbic system is a primitive part of the brain that is involved in emotions and helps us with basic functions necessary for survival. Two structures in the limbic system are involved in producing laughter: the amygdala and the hippocampus[citation needed].

The December 7, 1984 Journal of the American Medical Association describes the neurological causes of laughter as follows:

"Although there is no known 'laugh center' in the brain, its neural mechanism has been the subject of much, albeit inconclusive, speculation. It is evident that its expression depends on neural paths arising in close association with the telencephalic and diencephalic centers concerned with respiration. Wilson considered the mechanism to be in the region of the mesial thalamus, hypothalamus, and subthalamus. Kelly and co-workers, in turn, postulated that the tegmentum near the periaqueductal grey contains the integrating mechanism for emotional expression. Thus, supranuclear pathways, including those from the limbic system that Papez hypothesised to mediate emotional expressions such as laughter, probably come into synaptic relation in the reticular core of the brain stem. So while purely emotional responses such as laughter are mediated by subcortical structures, especially the hypothalamus, and are stereotyped, the cerebral cortex can modulate or suppress them."

[edit] Causes

Common causes for laughter are sensations of joy and humor, however other situations may cause laughter as well.

A general theory that explains laughter is called the relief theory. Sigmund Freud summarized it in his theory that laughter releases tension and "psychic energy". This theory is one of the justifications of the beliefs that laughter is beneficial for one's health.[8] This theory explains why laughter can be as a coping mechanism for when one is upset, angry or sad.

Philosopher John Morreall theorizes that human laughter may have its biological origins as a kind of shared expression of relief at the passing of danger.

For example, this is how this theory works in the case of humor: a joke creates an inconsistency, the sentence appears to be not relevant, and we automatically try to understand what the sentence says, supposes, doesn't say, and implies; if we are successful in solving this 'cognitive riddle', and we find out what is hidden within the sentence, and what is the underlying thought, and we bring foreground what was in the background, and we realize that the surprise wasn't dangerous, we eventually laugh with relief. Otherwise, if the inconsistency is not resolved, there is no laugh, as Mack Sennett pointed out: "when the audience is confused, it doesn't laugh" (this is the one of the basic laws of a comedian, called "exactness"). It is important to note that the inconsistency may be resolved, and there may still be no laugh. Due to the fact that laughter is a social mechanism, we may not feel like we are in danger, however, the physical act of laughing may not take place. In addition, the extent of the inconsistency (timing, rhythm, etc) has to do with the amount of danger we feel, and thus how intense or long we laugh. This explanation is also confirmed by modern neurophysiology (see section Laughter and the Brain).

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Camazine, Deneubourg, Franks, Sneyd, Theraulaz, Bonabeau, Self-Organization in Biological Systems, Princeton University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-691-11624-5 --ISBN 0-691-01211-3 (pbk.) p. 18
  2. ^ J.Y.T. Greig, The Psychology of Comedy and Laughter
  3. ^ Cousins, Norman, The Healing Heart : Antidotes to Panic and Helplessness, New York : Norton, 1983. ISBN 0393018164
  4. ^ Cousins, Norman, Anatomy of an illness as perceived by the patient : reflections on healing and regeneration, introd. by René Dubos, New York : Norton, 1979. ISBN 0393012522
  5. ^ Citation needed
  6. ^ Give Your Body a Boost -- With Laughter
  7. ^ "Laughing Therapy". InfoNIAC.com. http://www.infoniac.com/health-fitness/laughing-therapy.html. Retrieved on 2009-01-20. 
  8. ^ M.P. Mulder, A. Nijholt (2002) "Humor Research: State of the Art"

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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