Epilepsy Talk

Laughter as effective as cocaine? | January 27, 2012

Yup. A comic cartoon fires up the same brain centre as a shot of cocaine, researchers report.

A team at Stanford University in California asked lab mates, spouses and friends to select the wittiest newspaper cartoons from a portfolio. They showed the winning array to 16 volunteers while peering inside their heads with an MRI.

The cartoons activated the same reward circuits in the brain that are tickled by cocaine, money or a pretty face, the neuroscientists found. (Wow!)

One brain region in particular, the nucleus accumbens, lit up seconds after a rib-tickler but remained listless after a lackluster cartoon.

The nucleus accumbens is awash with the “feel good” chemical dopamine. And the region’s “buzz” may explain the euphoria that follows a good joke, the team suggests.

“Intuitively, it makes sense,” agrees Bill Kelley, who studies humor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Earlier investigations found that humor triggers brain regions that work out a joke’s language and meaning.

Kelley, for example, has studied people’s brains while they watched episodes of television comedies Seinfeld and The Simpsons.

A powerful MRI machine and a particularly detailed analysis picked up activity in the reward areas, suggests lead researcher Allan Reiss who hopes that the finding could help to diagnose the early stages of depression or show whether antidepressants are taking effect when people’s appreciation of humor is altered.

More scientific evidence…

Laughter can also improve your EEG results!

Scientists traced the brainwave activity of people responding to funny material when hooked up to an EEG and measured their brain activity when they laughed.

In each case, the brain produced a regular electrical pattern. Because, less than a half-second after exposure to something funny, an electrical wave moves through the cerebral cortex.

If the wave takes a negative charge, laughter results. If it maintains a positive charge, no response is given at all.

Next, the left hemisphere analyzes the words and structures of the joke.

The right hemisphere “gets” the joke. The visual sensory area of the occipital lobe creates images. The limbic (emotional) system makes you happier and the motor sections make you smile or laugh.

Try it, you’ll like it…

Human beings love to laugh, and the average adult laughs 17 times a day, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after.

But, not all laughter is alike.

There’s the superiority theory when we laugh at jokes that focus on someone else’s mistakes, stupidity or misfortune. (Now you wouldn’t do that would you?)

Then there’s the relief aspect. (Whew!) That’s the one that relieves tension and acts as an escape mechanism. (According to Dr. Lisa Rosenberg, humor, especially dark humor, can help workers cope with stressful situations. “The act of producing humor, of making a joke, gives us a mental break and increases our objectivity in the face of overwhelming stress,” she says.)

And then the awkward cover-up. If I laugh at myself first, maybe you’ll laugh along with me and not notice my embarrassment.

And also the “make em laugh” concept. Lighten and brighten things up. I bet if you were in a room full of people and started a good, genuine belly laugh, others would start to smile, then laugh, because laughter is catching.

In addition to the domino effect of joy and amusement, laughter also triggers healthy physical changes in the body.

It relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress. It dissolves negative emotions. It dispels anger.

After all, how can you be angry if you’re laughing? Or depressed. Or laden down with troubles?

Science even proves it.

So, get happy! And skip the cocaine…

Resources:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/human-biology/laughter3.htm

http://www.helpguide.org/life/humor_laughter_health.htm

http://www.crystalinks.com/laughter.html

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