Finding the Truth Behind Funny

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http://www.brainfacts.org/Brain-Anatomy-and-Function/Body-Systems/2019/Finding-the-Truth-Behind-Funny-041119

Robert Provine is a researcher who has studied laughter for over a decade. He conducted a study in which he brought participants to a lab, showed them some comedy sketches and recorded their laughter. He found that people laughed a little to be polite if that and found that the best laughs have nothing to do with any jokes. He described laughter as "one person's brain connecting directly with another's." He also stated that laughter was the building block of communication and that laughter and speech are controlled by different mechanisms in the brain that compete with each other. Laughter causes the brain to release naturally produced opioids. English and Finnish researchers conducted PET scans on people who were around friends versus those alone and found that people who were with friends laughing had more opioids in the brain that promote pleasurable feelings of togetherness.

Other research has found laughter to help with changing mood and possibly helping with disorders such as depression. Learning about how laughter can affect someone and how it releases opioids in the brain is interesting. Something new learned was how laughter promotes a feeling of togetherness which seems similar to the stress hormone Oxytocin. Maybe there is further research out there that pinpoints the exact location of which area of the brain is affected when there is laughter.


Comments

  1. Jenna WhiteApril 22, 2019 at 12:27 AM

    Laughter is truley intersting. Researchers still do not completely laughter on the brain but they do understand that laughter uses different regiens of the brain. I agree with you that it is important to know the process of laughter and the brain regions used. It can explain how laughter intersects with other aspects of our brain. This article is amazing to see that laughter produces endoprines and these endorphins have seen to help people that suffer with depression.
    Maybe laugh sessions can be a new form of therapy. I wonder if there is also a benefit of laughter to anxiety disorders. Does it show the same affects?

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