Laughter - that friendly expression on the face that we all visualize just by evoking the word - is something that we all think we know very well. However, behind this expression there are a number of emotional, social, psychological and even pathological causes that promote it. In addition, it is not exclusive to human beings, it is also observed in other animals such as chimpanzees, dogs and even rats.
Laughter is a physiological response to external and internal stimuli that cause an emotion, which does not necessarily have to be happiness.. There are many other reasons to laugh, so in this article we will explain why we laugh and what they are. The types of laughter and its meaning.
What is laughter?
Laughter is a physiological response triggered by external and internal stimuli that cause an emotion.. That emotion or energy needs to be released by the body and the "leak" occurs through laughter.
It is a facial expression facilitated by the muscles of the face, where a number of movements are involved and the most notorious are those of the mouth, cheeks and eyes. It supposes the emission of a series of consecutive sounds of the same tone that is repeated every 210 milliseconds.
It alters the respiratory system (shortness of breath) and when laughter is sincere it can also alter the gastrointestinal system (the famous expression "my stomach hurts from laughing"), causing reddening of the cheeks and watery eyes, all governed by by the autonomic nervous system.
Brain areas involved in laughter
Laughter - like any physiological response - is a complex phenomenon, despite the fact that we experience it as something simple and spontaneous. It involves the activation of numerous brain areas, the alteration of the already mentioned respiratory and gastrointestinal systems, and is accompanied by the release of different hormones.
The neurological pathways that are activated during laughter are different depending on the type of laughter that takes place.. In general terms, we can say that there are three main brain areas involved in the emission of laughter: Wernicke's area, the reward system, and the prefrontal cortex. The interconnection of these areas requires the participation of other regions, such as the hippocampus, the basal ganglia, and the Nucleus Accumbens.
- El Wernicke's area It is the main area for language comprehension, whose activation is fundamental in social interactions, which will be -among others- the scenarios that promote laughter.
- El prefrontal area it is involved in decision making and in the voluntary inhibition of some responses, such as avoiding laughing in inappropriate social contexts.
- El hippocampus it is necessary to resort to biographical memory that will make us link a memory to the stimulus received and “decide” if it is funny or not.
- And basal ganglia y Accumbens Core They are regions of the limbic system that is involved in the processing and generation of emotions, fundamental for the evocation of joy, disgust, etc. that would trigger laughter (because one can also laugh out of disgust or revulsion, as we will see in the following lines).
- El reward system -as its name says- is a set of regions involved in generating a satisfactory response to a stimulus that the brain evaluates as a reward for a need or longing, thus generating a feeling of well-being or plenitude. It is activated by both physiological needs (such as eating, urinating, etc.) and emotional ones (a funny stimulus that makes us laugh, for example) and in all cases this feeling of satisfaction and well-being is caused by the hormones that are released through consequence of the implementation of this system, which are: the dopamine, endorphins y oxytocin.
Other non-human animals laugh too
You read well, laughter is not an exclusive response of human beings. It has been seen that other animals with evolved social faculties also laugh, such as chimpanzees, Dogs or rats We all have in the collective imagination a memory of these animals with a laugh at their corners showing their teeth that, sometimes, are somewhat comical and a multitude of memes of these "laughing" animals circulate on the networks.
It should be noted that in animals laughter is not always a manifestation of cordiality or joy, in some cases (and this has been seen very come primates) laugh showing teeth is a sign of aggressiveness and marking of the territory. In any case -including humans- laughter acts as "social glue" as it is a means of communication between individuals that modulates social dynamics.
Laughter Benefits
Laughter improves health, no doubt. Studies show that laughing (for real) improves the immune system and prolongs life. Regarding the latter, there are some controversies, but what is clear is that if laughing improves health, it is very likely that we will live longer and with a better quality of life.
In fact, laughter is used as a therapeutic instrument and the risoterapia in certain clinical contexts to improve the health of patients. We see it in children's cancer units frequently animated by clown performances, in centers for the elderly, etc. Laughter induces an upbeat mood that relieves tension and makes drama less drama, worth the redundancy.
It has been seen that it helps fight anxiety and depression, prevents cardiovascular diseases, improves blood circulation, activates the brain and improves relationships with others and with oneself.
Laughter has an eminently social function
Both in humans and in other animals, laughter fulfills a main function and that is to act as a facilitator of social relations. Therefore, laughter has evolutionarily reached our days because it is a mechanism of social adaptation.
It constitutes a means of communication to transmit sympathy, antipathy or hatred, as well as to generate sexual attraction. There are many types of laughter with different functions depending on the context and that is why we will detail you below. types of laughter and their meaning
The types of laughter and their meaning
Next we will see that laughter can be caused by positive or adverse stimuli, it can be instrumental (with a purpose) and it can even be the consequence of an underlying pathology.
Laugh from the belly or sincere
Is considered the most honest kind of laugh. It is also the most difficult to experience, since it takes a truly hilarious stimulus to start laughing from the stomach and gasping for air, which is what characterizes this type of laughter. Being the result of a positive emotional response, it has multiple health benefits.
laughter
It is the loudest manifestation of sincere laughter. It is a "burst out laughing" because a stimulus has "touched us emotionally" in a very intense way. The loudness of this laugh is due to the fact that when we laugh we exhale or suck through the nose. It is experienced by about 25% of women and 33% of men.
fatuous laughter
It's a laugh empty that arises out of context and without the stimulus that provokes it. Is Infant y superficial, and often inappropriate. It is accompanied by a characteristic behavior based on shrugging the shoulders, covering the mouth and trying to hide. It is manifested by people with brain damage or acute psychosis.
Etiquette or social laughter
It is a laugh that acts as a mechanism of social adaptation. It arises in work or friendship contexts in which laughter acts as a reinforcing agent of relationships, not in response to something funny. It's just a laugh to fit in with the social group.
Contagious laughter
Emotions are contagious and therefore laughter too. The mirror neurons would respond to this social phenomenon whereby a laugh is perpetuated in a group from an initial laugh that triggers it. It makes us laugh to see someone laugh, we have all experienced it.
uncontrollable laughter
It is a laugh that arises uncontrollably in the person who emits it, so that once started, it You can not stop. It gradually increases in intensity and leads to a strange form of “situational syncope”.
Laughter to relieve stress
It starts spontaneously like a belly laugh but does not respond to a funny stimulus but to a stressful situation. In psychology this is known as “comic relief” and the function in this case is clear: to relieve the organism's tension in the face of the adversity experienced.
Nervous laugh
It arises for the same reason as the previous one, only that it is a more uncontrolled laugh. Responds to episodes of anxiety and it supposes an attempt of our unconscious to reduce the stress as it is.
silent laugh
It could be thought that it is a type of laughter that arises as a consequence of its containment in a space where laughing would be inappropriate. But that's not what it's about, it's the "joker's laugh", a type of laughter that offers a kind of pause that would invite the emission of laughter in the public. It is used in sessions risoterapia and also in classes laughter yoga.
sardonic laugh
It's a laugh that It arises as a consequence of a facial spasm and the person who manifests it is not actually laughing. It occurs in patients who contract the tetanus, where infection with the toxin of the tetanus bacteria causes paralysis of the muscles throughout the body, including the face, resulting in an expression of apparent wide-mouthed smile.
pigeon laugh
It is a laugh that implies laugh without opening your mouth. It is often practiced in risoterapia or in classes laughter yoga.
Canned or canned laughter
Surely we all remember those background laughs that are heard in television comedy series. That's canned or canned laughter: recordings of real laughter that placed in a comic context would promote or facilitate the laughter of the viewer, precisely because -as has been said in previous lines- laughter is contagious.
Cruel or offensive laugh
Laughter cruel, offensive o evil, is a laugh that -far from being moved by a positive emotion– Its mission is to ridicule or make fun of another person, leaving them in evidence through that “laughter”.
spastic laugh
It is a uncontrolled laughter that occurs episodically – in the form of "laughing fits"- in the absence of stimulation or even in contexts of sadness, in the face of bad news, where it is given as a "laughter of pain".
There is a neurological and sometimes psychiatric cause of this phenomenon: is a typical expression of pseudobulbar syndrome (a neurodegenerative disease), The pathology of "The Joker", the protagonist of the recent film that bears the same name played by Joaquin Phoenix.
Laughter or gelastic crisis
It is a stereotypical laughter that does not respond to the situational context and it is a reaction to a rare type of epileptic seizure. It is a sudden laugh that can be accompanied by disorders of the autonomic nervous system, even alterations in the state of consciousness, which can reach the Fainting.