The Science of Laughing

A Why do we begin laughing when we are tickled? Tickling comes from the feeling of light sensations
on the skin. Sometimes this light sensation feels like itching, but usually it causes giggling. When
dragging a feather gently across the surface of our skin, it can also cause a tickling sensation, and
more laughing. Heavy laughter can happen when someone or something repeatedly puts pressure
on a particular area by tickling. The most ticklish spots may be the feet, toes, sides, underarms, or
neck, and tickling any of these can cause a great deal of laughter. Yngve Zotterman from Karolinksk
Institute has discovered that tickling sensations come from signals within nerve fibers. These nerve
fibers are related to our senses of pain and touch. In addition, Zotterman has found t ickling sensations
are not only connected with nerve fibers, but also with our sense of touch. This is from information
which shows people who have lost pain sensations still laugh when tickled. Another question remains,
though. Why are we not able to tickle ourselves? What part of the brain is involved in laughter and
humor? Why is it sometimes said that a person has no sense of humor?

B Research indicates that laughter goes beyond a person’s voice and physical reactions. It seems
that this act requires the coordination of several muscles. Laughter increases blood pressure and
heart rate as well as changes in breathing, reduced levels of certain neurochemicals (catecholamines,
hormones) and boostes to our immune system. Could laughter have health benefits? Muscle tension
tends to go down after laughing, so perhaps it’s a good way for some to relax. Experiments on humans
have revealed some evidence suggesting watching humorous videos and tapes can reduce feelings
of pain, stop negative stress reactions and improve our defenses against infection.
C Researchers believe that processing humor and laughter requires a complicated network of brain
activity involving three main brain components. In a recent study, imaging equipment was used to
record healthy volunteers’ brain activity as they were presented with written jokes, comics from “The
New Yorker,” and “The Far Side” and recordings of the sounds of people laughing. The fi rst results
suggest that the pathway of the brain processing humor appears in parts of the frontal lobe brain
area, important for cognitive processing, the supplementary motor area, used for movement, and
the nucleus accumbens, connected to pleasure. Research investigations support
the notion that parts of the frontal lobe are involved in humor. Images were taken from subjects’ brains
as they listened to jokes. Part of the frontal lobe only became active when subjects found a joke
humorous. Another study compared healthy individuals with those whose frontal lobes
were damaged. Results showed that people with damaged frontal lobes tended to choose incorrect
punch lines to written jokes and didn’t laugh or smile as often with funny stimulus.

D Despite current knowledge on what parts of the brain are involved with humor, there still isn’t much
of an explanation for why we don’t laugh when we tickle ourselves. Darwin theorized within “The
Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animals” that the connection existing between tickling and
laughing was due to an anticipation of pleasure. Since we cannot tickle ourselves, Darwin believed
that the surprise of another person touching a sensitive spot must have caused laughter. Some
scientists believe that tickling resulting in laughter is a reflex even for babies. When we try to tickle
ourselves in the same place that someone else did, we do not laugh like we did before. Information
traveling through our spinal cord and brain should be the same. It seems that the brain needs
tenseness and surprise to produce a response of laughter. There is no tension or surprise when you
try to tickle yourself. The way that the brain reacts to tension and surprise remains mysterious,
although some evidence points to involvement of the cerebellum. Research suggests that during self-
tickling, the cerebellum communicates with another area, the somatosensory cortex, and therefore
lessening the tickling sensation. It seems that the cerebellum is responsible for “warning” the body
that the tickler is actually him or herself. More research on tickling and laughter by Christenfeld and
Harris includes “The Mystery of Ticklish Laughter” and “Can a Machine Tickle?.” In their work, they
explain how people laughed the same amount regardless whether they were being tickled by a
machine or by a person. The participants, however, did not know which one was tickling them. This
supports Darwin’s reasoning that the tickling response is a reflex, and the laughter response requires
some level of surprise.

E Damage to specific areas in the brain can influence the way we process humor. Peter Derks, a
professor of psychology, teamed up with a group of scientists at NASA-Langley in Hampton. In their
experiment, they used an advanced electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure brain activity for 10
participants when presented with humorous stimuli. Whether or not we laugh depends on the speed
at which our brains realize some inconsistency involved in most humor, then attaches an abstract
meaning to it. But humor can also be subjective, as some people find jokes funny that others do not.
A number of factors seem to be at play with humor, such as personality differences, and intelligence
levels, as well as current mood or status. Derks, however, claims that most people pick up on
situations which are supposed to be funny. After some research experiments, Derks realized that
several patients recovering from injuries to the brain were not able to tell the difference between what
was funny and what wasn’t.

F Dr. Shibata of the University of Rochester School of Medicine states that our neurons can also be
“tickled” after listening to a joke. The “funny bone” of our brains seems to be located in our right frontal
lobes, right over the right eye. When this area is affected, our ability to recognize a joke is
also impacted. Dr. Shibata performed MRI scans on his patients, measuring their brain activity in an
attempt to find out which areas of the brain are active when the punchline of a joke is delivered in
compared to other parts of the joke that are not funny. The punchlines “tickled” the frontal lobes.
Activity in the nucleus accumbens also showed up on scans, and possibly connect to feelings of
happiness after hearing a good joke as well as a tendency to seek out humorous stimulus. Though
this research focused on humor, these results may provide us with other insights, and even help those
suffering depression. Areas in the brain activated by humor seem to be outside of the norm for
patients with depression. In the future, brain scans could be used to examine patients affected by
depression or mood disorders. It could also be used to shed light on the reason that the loss of a
sense of humor or other personality changes occur with stroke victims.

Questions 6-13
The reading passage has ten paragraphs labelled A-J.

Which paragraph contains the following information? NB You may use any letter more than once.

6. Differences in personality or mood may account for why humor is not the same for

everyone.

7. Location of a brain section responsible for the recognition of joke.

8. Tickling yourself is difficult because it lacks the elements of tension and

surprise.

9. Laughter lowers muscle tension and stress levels.

10. Neuropsychological mechanisms by which humor and laughter work

11. Tickling sensations involve more than nerve fibers.

12. Parts of the brain control tickling reflex

13. Parts of the brain are involved with humor