A Brief Overview of Laughter
Written By Devika Chauhan
Have you ever watched a comedy movie before? Read a meme off the internet and found yourself giggling? Tried to tell a hilarious story to a friend, but couldn’t seem to get the words out, as you clenched your stomach, while wheezing and weird sounds were exclaimed? Laughed until you started to cry? At some point, we all have been exposed to a fine splash of humor which successfully tickles the funny bone. But, why exactly do we do this strange act of laughing and why is it important for us?
Laughter causes our abdominal muscles to contract rapidly, causing a change in our breathing patterns, as pressure is increased in our chest cavity. Due to this increased excretion on our abdominal muscles, laughing hard can sometimes cause pain. To understand how the action of laughing is triggered in our bodies, it is important to unveil the neurological formula behind it. As explained by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the frontal lobe, the front-most part of your brain, plays a key role in interpreting the bits of information we receive, for example visual or auditory input. This then determines whether or not the information should be perceived as funny. If so, an emotional response is stimulated in the limbic system, controlling our feelings. Finally, this in turn is stimulated within the motor cortex, reflecting our physical response in the form of laughter. (Hunt, 2021)
Did you know that laughing helps improve mental and emotional health as well? When we laugh our brains release feel good neurotransmitters like endorphins, and decrease levels of stress hormones such as cortisol. This is a primary reason why people who laugh daily, are reportedly known to cope with stress efficiently and sustain better cardiovascular health.
From a historical perspective, the evolution of laughter is thought to have originated as a social bonding mechanism in animals. Laughter signified friendly, playful and non-aggressive intent amongst animal communication. Researchers suggest that overtime, laughter grew to indicate a range of emotions within growing large social groups and developing language abilities. As such, humor became a tool used in varieties of speech that scientifically triggered one to smile or let out a chuckle. Hence, this is one of the reasons why laughter is considered contagious. “It’s like an invitation to share in someone’s emotional state” (Winkler, S. [TED-Ed]) Studies show that “laughter is 30 times more likely to occur in the company of others than when one is alone” (Hunt, 2021) So, next time you encounter a joke on the internet, remember that sharing the benefits of laughter is only a click away.
Written By Devika Chauhan from MEDILOQUY