Laughter: Animal Laughter, Contagious laughter, and Conscious laughter (Ying-Ting, Sam, Angela)

Laughter: Animal Laughter, Contagious laughter, and Conscious laughter

Ying-Ting Lin, Sam Scheib, & Angela Kim

Instructor: Andrew Yang

Our group’s main topic is about the origin of laughter and especially the contagious characteristic of it. We assumed that there are many times that we laugh consciously in our daily lives; however, what we found out is totally unexpected. Talking about laughter, the first thing that would normally come into our mind are things like jokes or comedies, but there are only 10%-20% of our daily laughter are followed by anything joke-like. In fact, most of the our daily laughter is done unconsciously. Here we are exploring the ancestral forms of laughters in animals, unconsciously contagious human laughter, conscious human laughter, and exercise laughter for the benefits it brings.

From our research we learned that laughter exists in an ancient area of the human brain. This suggest humans have been able to laugh for a long time. The research also suggested that laughing may not be trait only humans possess. Further research concluded that different mammals did exhibited signs of “laughing”. Laughter found in primates and dogs is similarly to humans. Rats make a chirping noise while playing that has been deemed similar to laughing because it is a sign that the rat is having a fun time playing. The study conducted by professors Jaak Panksepp & Jeff Burgdorf determined that when the rats were in a play situation with a much larger rat the noise was different and they interpreted the situation as more bullying than a time of joy. The professors noted that it is important to understand emotions like joy to further research on laughing in the human brain. Laughing in animals is used as a sign to show that the play is for fun and not a fight. This is key because it shows how these animals communicate without language. Also laughing and playing are mostly likely instinctual. Even though some mammals exhibit signs of laughing this laughing is not contagious. Our research has led us to conclude that for humans laughing is connected to the part of the brain that uses theory of mind. From the information discussed in class, we have not been able to prove that other animals have theory of mind. Thus they do not have contagious laughter.

It is believed that evolutionarily, our ancestors evolved emotions way before we invented language. Infants of our days do know how to smile and laugh before posing their first gestures or speaking words, which suggest that emotional expressions, such as smiling and laughing, are innate. Furthermore, studies have found out that the laughter of an infant is “a uniquely rewarding experience for parents” that it “provokes feelings of love and happiness and [therefore] promotes infant survival by eliciting parental proximity and care.” In addition, a research has shown that children with Down syndrome tend to seek more relatedness and attention from a group by laughing with the group. On the other hand, children with autism, though not quite eager to join the group, would still imitate laughter. The reason is because people “automatically and continuously mimic and synchronize facial expressions and voices of others,” infants began to do that shortly after birth.

Provine Robert explains, “The fact that laughter is contagious raises the intriguing possibility that humans have an auditory laugh detector- a neural circuit in the brain that responds exclusively to laughter. Once triggered, the laugh detector activates a laugh generator, a neural circuit that causes us in turn to produce laughter.” Furthermore, McGettigan, C’s team specifies that the laughter, which is the “positive emotional vocalization,” is the stimulus that “elicits laughing from the listener.” In short, even if we do not know what is funny, the sound of laughter will trigger parts of our brain that make us smile and even laugh. This is hardwired.

Most of the Laughter occurs unconsciously. People could consciously inhibit laughter but not produce laughter. The interesting thing about the conscious laughter is that people react to the conscious laughter as same as the unconscious laughter. When human hear the laughter, different part of the brain reacts to it. The research done by Dirk Wildgruber, professor of neuropsychiatry in Germany, will be treated as a main example. This example provides the theory that conscious laughter also could work as an acoustic signal.

Conscious laughter provides almost same effect to the human body as the unconscious laughter. Regarding to this information, there are a lot of therapy groups that uses conscious laughter.

Laughter not only psychologically helps people to bond up as a group and feel secured, it also benefits our health biologically. Despite the release of oxytocin, when we laugh, we also release nitric oxide that results vasodilation and increases blood flow, which lowers our mental stress. This explains why humor in psychology is classified as a “mature defense mechanism we invoke to guard ourselves against overwhelming anxiety.”

The  final part of our presentation is a quick demo of laughing yoga. A few exercises have been picked from Dr. Madan Katari to do with the class. We are excited to see how much of a response we get from the class all laughing together. Our next steps of the project would be testing these exercises on different groups of people of similar size and compare recordings of the laugher to see if they are similar or unique.

In short, Laughter is a useful social tool inherited from our ancestors, a language understood and used by everyone, and one of the best therapies for diseases.

Bibliography

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Apr. 2015.

The author of the article is Stanley Coren, PhD. who is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. He has written several books on dogs and psychological issues. He discussed Konrad Lorenz who suggest that dogs laughed. He then went on to talk about laughter in primates and the research done by Robert Provine. The end of the article was about an experiment done by Patricia Simonet who recorded dog sounds in a park and when analyzed she found burst in the frequency that she believes is laughter.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/200911/do-dogs-laugh

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Effect on Human Judgment and Behavior." European Journal of Social Sciences 8.2 (2009): 253-57. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.

Nicolas Gueguen, Celine Jacob, Angelique Martin are professors in the business department at the University de Bretagne. For our research we read the first sectioned titled “Social influence Effects of Mimicry”. This sections discusses how often humans mimic each other. We even tend to mimic the way someone speaks while talking to them. The article then introduced the topic of contagious laughter and how tv uses laugh tracks to trigger a laughing response from the audience. The response to the canned laughter is often longer and the material is rated as more hilarious than when no canned laughter is played. This information was the starting point for our research topic.

http://www.eyethink.org/resources/papers/Gueguen-et-al..pdf

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The researchers at the Mahatma Gandhi Mission’s Medical College used surveys for three groups of people from different culture to examine whether laughter is closely associated with emotional well-being and life satisfaction. The journal also specifically talks about specific parts within the body that are involved while laughing, but more importantly, are the facts of how laughing benefit our health, both mentally and biologically.

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humor is classified as one of the mature defense mechanisms that support the benefit of laughter that Hasan Hunaid’s research team mentioned- reduce stress.

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Stefan Lovgren is a journalist for National Geographic News online. The opening of that article discusses the research done that suggest that humans were able to laugh before we could speak. The research also mentioned that the ancestral forms of laughter and play existed in animals first. The article then goes on to explain Jaak Panksepp’s research on tickling rats and how their chirping is a primitive form of laughter. The last part of the article is about Robert Provine’s research on laughter in primates. His research found a link between primates’ laughter like noises and human laughter.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0331_050331_animallaughter.html

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Smith. "Patterns of Laryngeal Electromyography and the Activity of the Respiratory System During Spontaneous Laughter." Patterns of Laryngeal Electromyography and the Activity of the Respiratory System During Spontaneous Laughter. The American Physiological Society, 1 July 2006. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

Authors and researchers from the University of Iowa, University of Colorado, National Center for Voice and Speech, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and University of Utah School of Medicine, had two groups of people laughing spontaneously and record their laryngeal electromyographic activity, tracheal pressure, laryngeal muscle activity. The characteristic sound pattern is recognized by cross culture’s 11-21 weeks old infants, again strengthens that laughter is innate and universal. The journal also brought up body systems that got involved while laughing, which reveals that laughing is not a simple process.

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The author and the researchers from Royal Holloway University of London, University College London, King’s College London, and University of Amsterdam, used fMRI to detect neural responses of different laughters, especially the Emitted laughter and Evoked laughter. They found out they differ in greater activity in different areas of the brain. Significantly is that emitted laughter shows greater activity in amPFC, where activates when there’s an attempt to determine other’s mental states. (Evoked laughter shows greater activity in bilateral superior temporal gyri instead) The results show that if animals are assumed not to have theory of mind, they do not have emitted laughter. In addition, activation in amPFC also means that emitted laughter functions socially. The journals also brings up the study that says primates’ laughter is not universal, theirs differ from group to group

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Peter McGraw is a professor at the University of Colorado and Joel Warner is a former Westword staff writer. Their article starts off with Panksepp and Jeffrey Burgdorf’s research on laughter in rats by tickling them. The chirp they make is a primitive form of laughter. The article moves on to psychologist Marina Davila-Ross’s research on laughter in primates where she tickled several primates and compared it to human laughter. Koko the gorilla who learned sign language was mention that she had been known to sign jokes. The article concludes with more details on Panksepp and Jeffrey Burgdorf’s research on laughter in rats.

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attempted to amuse them to examine the frequency of their smiles and laughs as a measure of “state

humor” to see if sense of humor of infants benefit them as they grow up. The conclusion is that

good-humored infants elicits from parental care and therefore feel more secured. This journal brought up specific period of the development of smile, laughter, first gesture, and spoken words that help strengthen an argument from another journal saying that infants have emotions before they speak, suggesting that laughter is innate. In addition, it also brought up the evolutionary benefit of laughter (more parental care).

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Robert Provine is a neuroscientist and professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore county. He studies the development and evolution of the nervous system and behavior including human social behavior. This article treats the basic information about the laughter that everyone could understand easily without the deep knowledge on psychology.

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The author at the University of Maryland, his study result were also brought up in McGettigan’s research paper. He and three of his undergraduates observed 1200 people laughing spontaneously in their natural environments. The results show interesting information, such as only 10% to 20% of laughter is followed by anything joke-like, people laugh 30 times more when they are in social than solitary situations, females laugh much more than males, use of laughter within a speech...etc, and more importantly, that laughter is contagious.

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The author from University of Portsmouth and her colleagues at Down Syndrome Education International, videotaped children with Down Syndrome and children with autism at their home to observe when these children laugh. The connection of this journal with our group title is that even children with social disability tend to unconsciously mimic laugh and spontaneously laugh to engage into the groups suggests that laughter is innate and it is an efficient social tool human possess while socializing.

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Authors and researchers at Magnetic Research Council Clinical Science Centre, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, and Imperial College London, used fMRI to detect regions responsive to positive-valence emotions, and negative-valence emotions.The results suggest that just people listening to positive vocal expressions will automatically prepare their responsive orofacial gestures. In their word, it is a mirroring response, but relating it to our topic, it reinforces that laughter is social and innate.

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/26/50/13067

Wöhr, Markus, and Rainer K. W. Schwarting. "Ultrasonic Communication in Rats: Can

Playback of 50-kHz Calls Induce Approach Behavior?" PLOS ONE:. Public Library of Science, 26 Dec. 2007. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.

• Markus Wöhr and Rainer K. W. Schwarting are both affiliated with experimental and physiological Psychology at Philipps-University of Marburg in Germany.This is a publication of their research on rats and their distinct types of ultrasonic vocalizations. In the study they tested if 50-kHz rat calls had communicative value. In a first experiment when the rats listened to the 50-kHz calls it induced behavior and response. When presented with 22-kHz calls, the rats felt threatened signals. In two other experiments, they used both a natural 50-kHz call and an artificial call. The natural call stimulated a lot responses. They concluded that the 50 -kHz served as a social communicative signal.

• http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0001365

"Conscious Laughter: How Does YOUR Brain Register Laughter." Humintell RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
The author is a neuroscience journalist.In this article, she mainly treats the experiment of Dirk Wildgruber, the professor of neuropsychiatry at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in Germany. The experiment looks on how people read the different kinds of laughter and how the brain reacts to it. As a result, Dirk Wildgruber finds out that different kinds of laughter stimulates different parts of the brain.
http://www.humintell.com/2013/06/conscious-laughter/

Notes:

"Dutch Laughing Interview Subtitled." YouTube. YouTube, 21 Mar. 2010. Web. 21 Apr. 2015 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk5pEYd4n5w>.

Katari, Madan, Dr. "100 Laughter Yoga Exercises Video." YouTube. YouTube, 16 June 2013.

Web. 14 Apr. 2015 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq4kTZuLops>.