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Did you know that laughter can balance body chemistry, and even help to alleviate pain?
In fact, there is a whole raft of positive effects it has on our physiology, from improving our immune responses to decreasing the risks of heart disease. With no side-effects and a free price tag, it’s not hard to see why researchers are keen to nail down the mechanics behind this most complex of human traits.
Everyone can laugh. It brings communities together and strengthens familial and friendship ties regardless of their religion, culture, or background.
We can laugh spontaneously, sarcastically, nervously, in response to stress or for no apparent reason at all. Laughter may also be forced, faked or deliberately prolonged. Babies who are deaf and blind can laugh, having never seen or heard laughter before. Our closest mammalian cousins, the great apes, share the same primal need to laugh, suggesting that it must serve some evolutionary purpose or we would have adapted over millennia to remove it as a function.
Which part of the brain does it use?
The nuances of laughter require the activation of more than one region of the brain. Elise Wattendorf et al, studied MRI scans of volunteers split into three groups. The first were tickled on the soles of the foot and granted permission to laugh. The second group were…