« Rare reptile fossil found in Antarctica | Main | AGU: The question of scientific consensus »

Laughter: it's catching

Happy sounds tickle the brain to prompt a smile.

Laughter is indeed infectious, according to a new study. Researchers have shown that the mere sound of giggles tickles the same area of the listener's brain that is activated when smiling. The brain's response helps to prepare the facial muscles for a good hearty laugh.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones on December 12, 2006 10:00 PM |

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://blogs.nature.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1609

Comments

Hello! Could'nt agree more with these findings. One should also look up comedycures.org. Although this may sound like a commercial comment, but I must take the opportunity to make a point that this is one of the reasons that led my company to develop a software that allows every individual to create his/her OWN bank of jokes, cartoons, comic strips etc, clasify them, and use these bits of humor for stress relief by taking laughter sessions, sharing them as laughter (humor) cards, using dynamic screen savers that bring up different jokes, sending them via SMS and email from the software, blogging them, and even scheduling them on the computer so that every once in a while one gets a pop-up to enjoy a joke. In our otherwise stressful days, how else can we laugh, if we do not have a bank of jokes that can do so much for us?

Have fun :)

Gautam

Posted by: Gautam D Goradia | December 14, 2006 05:24 AM

there's nothing funny about cheese

Posted by: marty k | December 14, 2006 05:04 PM

If you are curious, there has been some FMRI work on yawning by the group in Helsinki:

Schurmann M, Hesse MD, Stephan KE, Saarela M, Zilles K, Hari R, Fink GR Yearning to yawn: the neural basis of contagious yawning.
Neuroimage. 2005 Feb 15;24(4):1260-4.

Posted by: Doug Davidson | December 14, 2006 05:28 PM

The great thing about laughter is its therapeutic potential. See the story about Norman Cousins made into a great television movie, starring Ed Asner. Science is still taking time effectively catching up and properly testing it.

Posted by: A Key | November 28, 2007 05:03 PM

Post a comment

Comments will be reviewed by staff before being published. You can be as critical or controversial as you like, but please don't get personal or offensive, and do keep it brief. Excessively long entries may be cropped. Remember this is for feedback and discussion - not for publishing papers or press releases.

We strongly encourage you to use your real, full name. Email addresses are required: this is just in case we need to discuss your comment with you privately. They won’t be published.


Please enter the numbers you see below - this helps us to cut down on spam. Note that attempting to post within 30 seconds of hitting ‘preview’ or ‘post’ can cause the system to think you are spamming the site. If you are having trouble with this system, you can instead e-mail a comment to 'inthefield at nature.com'.

Search