(upbeat music)
- Okay, so the Pope, Snoop Dogg,
and a penguin with a glandular
disorder walk into a bar.
The bartender looks at them
and after a second he says,
oh what the hell is this supposed to be,
some kind of joke?
(drum rolls)
Pause for the drums, thank you.
That's one of the worst
jokes I know, folks,
and you might've chuckled anyway
because people love laughing.
It's true, the average person laughs
about 17 times a day,
but what is laughter?
How does it work, and is
it really good for you?
The study of laughter,
which is a real thing
people do for a living,
has its own name, gelotology.
These gelotologists have
learned that the production
of laughter is involved with
multiple regions of the brain.
Emotional responses are the function
of the brain's largest
region, the frontal lobe.
In this one study, subjects
were hooked up to an EEG
and their brain activity was
measured when they laughed.
Their brains produced a
regular electrical pattern.
Researchers observed the following stuff,
the left-side of the
cortex analyzed the words
and structure of the joke.
The large frontal lobe,
which is involved in
social/emotional reactions,
became very active.
The right hemisphere carried
out the analysis required
to get the joke.
Brain wave activity then spread
to the sensory processing
area of the occipital lobe,
and laughter seemed to
be produced via a circuit
that runs through many
regions of the brain,
and here, the limbic system seems crucial.
This system controls
some of those behaviors
that are essential to
the life of all mammals.
The amygdala and hippocampus seem to be
the main areas involved with emotions.
So, there's lots of stuff
going on there, right?
Lots of brain stuff.
Never mind, I shouldn't have done it.
So, where does laughter come from, right?
The first human laughter, turns out,
may have begun as a
gesture of shared relief
at the passing of danger.
Oh, that mammoth totally almost killed us,
or something, I don't know.
Since the relaxation that
results from a bout of laughter
inhibits the fight or flight response,
laughter might indicate
trust in one's companions.
That's kind of sweet.
Many researchers believe that
the purpose of cracking up
is related to making and
strengthening human connections.
So laughter, like a lot
of other human behaviors,
may have evolved to change
the behavior of others.
It might be a social signal,
sort of like a bird song.
Now, as for those health
benefits, they're real.
Laughter provides a safety
valve that shuts off
the flow of stress hormones
and that whole fight
or flight compound that swings into action
when we experience anger or hostility.
And when we're laughing,
cells that destroy tumors
and viruses increase
as do gamma interferon,
T-cells which are a major
part of the immune response,
and B-cells which make antibodies.
Which despite their name are
a really good thing to have.
Researchers estimate
that laughing, get this,
100 times is equal to 10
minutes on a rowing machine
or 15 minutes on an exercise bike.
Increasingly, mental health professionals
are suggesting what they
call laughter therapy
which teaches people
how to laugh at things
that aren't usually funny,
and how to cope with difficult
situations by using humor.
So, thanks for watching, this is the part
where we usually ask
a question at the end.
Well, here's mine, what's
your favorite joke?
I love jokes, our whole crew loves jokes,
and we'd love to hear yours.
And while you're online,
befriend on the internet,
Facebook, Twitter, all that stuff.
You can hear more from us that way.
You can also catch me,
along with my funny, fantastic co-hosts,
on brainstuffshow.com
