Epilepsy Talk

Laughter as effective as cocaine?

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

Laughter as effective as cocaine?

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!)