From a scientific point of view, laughter is the most common human reaction to funny situations or tickling. It manifests itself in the form of the production of specific sounds, the implementation of involuntary movements of the muscles of the face and upper body, as well as the active functioning of the respiratory apparatus. Scientists and philosophers have been trying to understand for many centuries why people generally need such a strange reaction. During this time, they managed to understand that laughter is needed not only for mental health, but also for muscle development . They also found out that not only people, but also many animals can laugh. There are many types of laughter and this reaction often has great benefits for our body. As you can see, laughter is not such a simple phenomenon. So let's talk a little about it now.
Still from the movie "Joker"
Why do we laugh when we are nervous?
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Nervous laughter is supposed to be a way of showing ourselves and others that what makes us laugh is not a threat or cause for concern.
In this way, we are essentially reassuring ourselves that whatever makes us uncomfortable is not important. Laughter also helps you take your mind off pain and associate that pain with positive emotions. This is why nervous laughter can happen even at funerals or other sad or traumatic events.
Cry
According to popular belief, crying is beneficial because tears moisturize and cleanse the surface of the eyes, and the lysozyme they contain protects the eyes from bacteria. But if these are the main functions of crying, then why do only people cry?
Indeed, apart from the often cited, but isolated, examples from the life of animals, crying is characteristic only of humans. As Darwin wrote, “this habit was probably acquired after the period when man branched off from the common ancestor of the genus Homo and from the non-crying apes” [Darwin, 1953, p. 786].
Like laughter, crying has features of an inadequate reaction - displaced activity. In addition, like laughter, it is a social releaser because it is very stereotypical and communicative. And finally, like laughter, it interrupts speech and action, at least when it turns into sobbing [Deacon, 1992; 1997].
In modern society, only small children become infected by crying from each other [Hoffmann, 1977; Hatfield, 1993], whereas adults are usually ashamed of crying. In the past, crying was much more social. Until recently, the aborigines of Australia, the Andaman Islands and America maintained the custom of collective crying, associated not only with funeral rites, but also with situations such as receiving guests or reconciliation, when crying together was a manifestation of friendship and solidarity [Radcliffe-Brown, 1933; Fraser, 1985; Moss, 1996]. This custom was called “greeting with tears” [Friederici, 1907]. In many ancient religious traditions, people cried and laughed together, either simultaneously or alternately, because, as is known, death in archaic ideas was associated with food, sexual intercourse and rebirth [Reinach, 1912; Hocart, 1927; Fraser, 1980; Freudenberg, 1997].
Medical reasons
Uncontrollable laughter that looks like nervous laughter may actually be the result of an underlying medical condition. The most common causes of uncontrollable laughter include:
- Pseudobulbar affect, a condition characterized by episodes of strong emotions that are inappropriate to the situation;
- Hyperthyroidism, a condition in which your thyroid gland produces too much hormone;
- Graves' disease, a condition in which the immune system produces too many antibodies that bind to thyroid cells;
- Kuru, a rare disease in which the brain is affected by an abnormal protein.
***
And here we come to Koestler's attempt to reverse engineer humor. Koestler was one of the first enthusiasts of cognitive science at a time when behaviorism was everywhere dominant, and he was the first to draw attention to the inventory of systems of rules, modes of interpretation, ways of thinking and frames of reference available in thinking. Humor, he says, begins with a thread of reasoning in one frame of reference that encounters an incongruity: an event or statement that makes no sense in the context of everything that came before it. The discrepancy can be resolved by moving to another coordinate system in which the event will have meaning. And in this frame of reference, the position of this person will be understated. Koestler calls this transition “bisociation.” Many of Koestler's examples of humor are timeless, so I will demonstrate this theory with a couple of examples; However, I will have to analyze them in detail, because of which I will have to say goodbye to the humorous effect. Lady Astor tells Winston Churchill: “If you were my husband, I would put poison in your tea.” He replies: “If you were my wife, I would drink it.” This answer is paradoxical from the point of view of the frame of reference of murder, because people generally do not want to be killed. The discrepancy is resolved by switching to the coordinate system of suicide, in which death is a desired release from suffering. In this frame of reference, Lady Astor is the cause of a failed marriage, and this is far from the best role.
A climber falls off a cliff and gets caught on a rope over a thousand-foot drop. In horror and despair, he raises his eyes to the heavens and exclaims: “Is there anyone up there who can help me?” A voice comes from heaven: “You will be saved if you prove your faith and let go of the rope.” The climber looks down, then up, and then shouts: “Is there anyone else there who can help me?” From the point of view of the frame of reference of religious plots, where God works miracles in exchange for a demonstration of faith, and people are always grateful to him for this transaction, the climber's answer is absurd. The discrepancy is resolved by moving into the frame of reference of everyday life, where people have a healthy respect for the laws of physics and are skeptical of those who try to challenge them. In this frame of reference, God (and indirectly his supporters from religious institutions) may turn out to be a fraud - however, if this is not so, then the climber’s common sense will lead to his death. […]
Jan Steen, Self-portrait, 3rd quarter of the 17th century
Koestler's three components of humor—incongruity, resolution, and incongruity—have been supported by numerous experimental studies of what makes a joke funny. Crude humor involving physical actions works through the conflict between the psychological frame of reference, in which a person is the reference point for beliefs and desires, and the physical frame of reference, in which a person is simply a piece of material matter subject to the laws of physics. Toilet humor works through the conflict between the psychological frame of reference and the physiological frame of reference in which a person produces disgusting substances. Bawdy humor also works through the conflict between psychological and biological frames of reference; in this case, man is a mammal with all the instincts and organs necessary for internal fertilization. Verbal humor is based on the conflict between two meanings of a word, the second of which is unexpected, delicate or offensive.
What to do to stop laughing?
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If laughter is a reaction to stress and not a consequence of a medical condition, you can try to control it. The following can help cope with inappropriate emotions:
- Deep breathing exercises:
- Meditation;
- Yoga;
- Art and music therapy;
- Cognitive behavioral therapy.
Laughter through the eyes of a biologist
In the mid-1980s, a group of American psychologists led by Jak Panksepp studied rat games. Young rat pups, unlike pups, love to tinker with each other: one little rat jumps on the other’s back and tries to knock him down and press him to the ground with his belly up.
Scientists tried to understand what goes on in the head of a playful rat. How, for example, does a little rat that is being attacked know that such a game does not threaten its life? What is the difference between a friend rat and an enemy rat?
Information about the intentions of the comrade who jumped on your back must come through the senses. Panksepp and his colleagues began to look through all the options. First, the rats' sense of smell was turned off with a special substance. They continued to play as if nothing had happened. Then vision. The blind rats also fussed with each other. The sense of touch turned out to be more important - the local anesthetic, which was injected into the rats' backs, noticeably reduced their play activity. But the most interesting thing was the behavior of deaf rats.
To the surprise of scientists (rats, in principle, rarely rely on hearing), the deaf rats behaved noticeably more carefully. When they were attacked by a playful relative, they often ran away, not allowing him to overwhelm them. At the same time, their desire to play, in principle, did not disappear: the deaf rats themselves attacked others with the same frequency. There was a feeling that the deaf rats wanted to play, but could not distinguish between play and danger.
For almost 10 years this result remained a mystery. In the mid-90s, a new employee, Brian Knutson, came to the laboratory and became interested in deaf rats. If hearing is needed to play, Knutson decided, then rats could hear something. The smaller the animal, the thinner its squeak - maybe we just don’t hear rats talking? Knutson decided to try his luck and ordered equipment to record ultrasound.
It turned out that in the gaming arena where the little rats were hanging out, there was a real ultrasonic hubbub. The rats made sharp, short sounds with a frequency of about 50 kHz - much higher than what the human ear can hear.
Scientists have begun to study these ultrasonic vocalizations. It turned out that they are characteristic of both young and adult rats. Young people squeak during games, and adults squeak when they meet familiar rats that do not threaten their safety. A hazard (such as the smell of a cat) basically suppresses a squeak at 50 kHz and enhances another, lower one, at 22 kHz.
With a thin squeak, the little rats not only reacted to the game, but also expressed excitement in anticipation of this game - for example, when they were placed on the playground where they had previously met peers. Moreover, for this, the animals had to know that now it would be fun: the rat pups, with whom they had not played before, did not make any sounds. In addition, the rats squeaked in anticipation of a big feast after a daily fast. To top it all off, scientists have discovered that characteristic squeaks in rats can be caused not only by joyful events or their anticipation, but also by tickling - imitating a rat's play with your fingers.
Panksepp and Knutson had no doubts. A rat squeak at 50 kHz is laughter.
What do jokes about Stirlitz and tickling have in common?
To say that Panksepp's colleagues were skeptical about the hypothesis of laughter in rats is an understatement. Reviewers, foaming at the mouth, argued that no one would ever believe such data, that the very idea of laughter in animals is an unprofessional and incorrect projection of human categories onto our smaller brothers. To discuss laughter in animals, it is good to first understand where it comes from and what it means for us.
Is it funny for a dog?
Aristotle believed that laughter distinguishes humans from animals, and in infants the soul appears at the moment of the first laughter. As for the soul in infants, it is an open question, but sounds reminiscent of laughter are well known among monkeys and dogs. They are not very similar to human laughter (which is most likely due to the unique structure of our vocal apparatus) and are more reminiscent of puffing: short exhalations with effort. In dogs, for example, recording this “laugh” induces playfulness, reduces stress, and increases sociability. Monkeys “laugh” from being tickled or playing with their mates.
Most scientists approach the issue of animal laughter with caution: a dog or a monkey cannot tell what exactly they feel when they make certain sounds, so it is unlikely that the relationship between human and monkey (and especially rat) laughter will ever be clearly proven it will succeed. But some experts, including Jak Panksepp, believe that the similarities in our nervous systems and the numerous parallels between human and animal behavior are sufficient reason to consider real laughter in animals to be at least probable.
What is laughter anyway - ordinary, human? Rhythmic, short contractions of the diaphragm, often with characteristic sounds, in response to humor or tickling. Humor – or tickle! A strange combination, don't you think? Adult, respectable people react with some senseless hoot to two completely different phenomena: witty combinations of words and moving their fingers over sensitive areas of the skin. There is something to puzzle over. What does science say about the nature of laughter?
First of all, laughter is innate. Along with crying, it is one of the first sounds that people learn to make. Laughter exists in all cultures. It does not require training. Even blind or deaf babies can laugh.
Secondly, all types of laughter have something in common - a reaction to surprise. Most jokes, for example, work like this: first one creates one model of what is happening, and then suddenly it turns out that this model is wrong. Stirlitz fell backward, moved forward.
Tickling is also a surprise. At first glance, it may seem that laughter when tickled is a reflex, a direct connection between the nerve endings of the skin and contractions of the diaphragm. But in fact, the main thing in tickling is not the tactile sensation itself, but its unpredictability. Most people are unable to tickle themselves - if the brain knows exactly where and at what exact moment it will tickle, then it will no longer tickle. The only known group of people who are good at self-tickling are schizophrenics. "Schizophrenia" translated from Greek means "fractured mind." For those suffering from this disease, their own actions can be a surprise, and tickling, accordingly, can cause laughter.
Third, all types of laughter are suppressed by threat. Jokes stop being funny if your life is in danger. Tickling only makes you laugh if you know for sure that your armpits are not in danger - otherwise, it causes a surge of adrenaline and the desire to run away or fight. Laughter is a reaction to a harmless surprise.
Fourth, laughter is highly dependent on social context. Research shows that people laugh thirty times more (!) in the presence of other people. Some scientists go further and argue that laughter, in principle, can only be caused by another person - just like tickling.
Finally, fifthly, humor is a single quality. Statistically, the most ticklish people are also the funniest. The tendency to laugh when tickled is closely correlated with a sense of humor, that is, with the tendency to joke and laugh at jokes.
In short, it turns out that tickling and a joke are not so far from each other. Darwin also wrote that humor is “tickling the mind,” and the famous American humor researcher Paul McGee called humor “the logical development of playful behavior into the sphere of abstract intellectual ideas.”
In other words, laughter can be caused by a variety of stimuli, but they are united by a common idea: a harmless social surprise. For a person, this may be a joke told in the company of friends; for animals, it may be a playful attack by a friendly little rat.
Laughter is a weapon of friendship
If both people and rats really have laughter, then it must be the oldest evolutionary invention, which is at least several tens of millions of years old (modern humans appeared about 200 thousand years ago). But if this is so, then laughter must have a clear evolutionary meaning. Why might animals need laughter?
Traditionally, it was believed that laughter means a signal “this is a game”, that is, it carries information about friendly intentions. The tradition of shaking hands when meeting or raising your palm as a sign of greeting has the same meaning among people: empty hands mean there are no weapons; no weapons means you don’t have to be afraid.
This version explains a lot in the behavior of both animals and humans. Laughter lets others know that you do not wish them harm. For children and animals, this is necessary in order to be allowed to play. Deaf rats cannot hear laughter and therefore cannot distinguish between play and attack.
Adults subconsciously (or consciously) remember this smoothing role of laughter and begin to use it in other situations - hence nervous laughter as a defensive reaction in unfamiliar company. According to statistics, in a dialogue, the speaker laughs 46% more than the listener. Laughter is the lubricant of communication.
But in recent years, a slightly modified version of the meaning of laughter from a biological point of view has emerged. The old version considers laughter to be information—a unique form of language specialized for transmitting emotional signals. Psychologists Michael Ouren of Cornell University and Jo-Ann Bakorowski of Vanderbilt University are inclined to believe that laughter is not just an informational signal about emotions, but rather something like an emotional virus that the laugher tries to infect others with in order to win them over to his side.
Laughter is one of the most “contagious” forms of human behavior. Even in laboratory conditions, the sound of “off-screen laughter” causes laughter in most subjects - an effect widely exploited by television sitcoms.
What’s more interesting is that it’s not just contractions of the diaphragm that are “contagious,” but the positive emotions that accompany laughter. Moreover, simply imagining laughter is enough to lift your spirits. MRI experiments show that this activates a part of the brain called the supplementary motor area. This part of the cortex is thought to play an important role in our understanding of the actions of others.
Are mirror neurons the basis of human culture?
One of the most controversial but widely discussed hypotheses in neurobiology in recent years. Mirror neurons, first discovered in macaques, are nerve cells in the motor cortex that are activated both when the animal itself performs actions and when observing the same actions being performed by someone else. For example, a mirror neuron may be activated when a monkey grabs a stick or when a scientist grabs that stick in front of its eyes. It turns out that such nerve cells respond not to specific movements or visual images, but to the idea of action - for example, a grabbed stick.
Some neuroscientists believe that mirror neurons are the basis of many aspects of higher nervous activity, from empathy to language. “Reflecting” the actions of other people inside one’s own brain allows one to understand the meaning of these actions - and without this, culture is impossible. Although the central role of mirror neurons in consciousness is a controversial idea, most scientists agree that the motor cortex as a whole is indeed involved in understanding the actions of others. Danish scientists from John Michael's group used transcranial stimulation to temporarily "turn off" certain parts of the motor cortex in volunteers, while simultaneously showing them videos in which actors imitated various actions, such as pretending to turn a key or lick ice cream. At the same time, volunteers who were suppressed in the areas of the motor cortex responsible for hand movements had difficulty guessing the meaning of turning a key, but easily recognized invisible ice cream. Volunteers with suppressed “facial” areas of the brain recognized the key, but not the ice cream.
Hyperlink: The popular science book by the famous neuroscientist Vileyanur Ramachandran “The Brain Tells the Story” has recently been translated into Russian. What makes us human." It focuses heavily on mirror neuron research and the potential application of this knowledge to treat many neurological disorders.
According to one version, in order to understand what another person is doing, our brain, using the additional motor area, launches a “simulation” of these actions. If the interlocutor waves his hands, the brain imagines how to wave his hands. If the interlocutor hits his knee, the brain imagines that he also received a signal from the knee about the blow, remembers that it hurts, and produces an appropriate emotion - empathy. In the same way, according to the “viral” hypothesis, laughter works: when we see another person laugh, our brain automatically reproduces his laughter and all the emotions associated with it. As a result, the person who laughs evokes positive feelings in those around him, whether they want it or not.
It is not difficult to imagine how such a mechanism of “violent joy” could gain a foothold in the course of evolution. Laughter plays into the biological success of the laugher - and evolution loves everything successful. From an individual's perspective, laughter increases attractiveness and facilitates communication. Ouren and Bakorovsky showed that after ten minutes of communication with girls, men were more interested in those of them who laughed more, and only out loud - silent laughter did not evoke reciprocal emotions. From a social perspective, laughter promotes bonding and increases efficiency in group tasks. Jokes and jokes at work are a much more useful strategy than seriousness.
According to Ouren and Bakorowski's hypothesis, laughter is something like aggression, only in reverse. Both are forms of purposeful and, in general, violent behavior in order to obtain benefits. But in the case of aggression, this benefit implies that someone felt bad. And if you laugh, everyone feels good. Considering that laughter also has health benefits (it improves blood circulation and helps reduce stress hormones), this is truly an ingenious evolutionary invention.
In the wild nature, from which man came, there is little fun. To survive, you must always be on guard, always nervous and afraid. Laughter, or its analogues in animals, is a guarantee that here and now no one will eat you or hurt you. It allows social animals to establish strong family and friendship bonds, helps children play, and adults help them meet and fall in love. It's no surprise that April Fool's Day is one of the most popular holidays in many countries around the world.
Author: Nikolay Kukushkin Published: April 1, 2016
