Science of Laughter

Laughing is usually associated with pleasure but it could also have health benefits.

Scientists are just starting to understand what happens in our brains when we laugh.

"A day without laughter is a day wasted," said the comedian Charlie Chaplin and scientists are starting to agree. Every couple of months, there are news stories claiming that chuckling is good for your health and scientists are only just beginning to understand what happens in the brain when we laugh. We don't only laugh because something is funny, but also for a range of social reasons like when we feel awkward or surprised. But for most of us, laughing is a pleasurable experience and researchers are looking at the health benefits it could have.

What makes us laugh

Certain regions of the brain can cause laughter, for example the supplementary motor area which is associated with certain types of planning and motor organisation. Stimulation of this area elicits laughter and a sense of mirth. Other areas of the brain are also involved, for example people with benign brain tumours near the hypothalamus can have uncontrollable fits of laughter, called gelastic seizures.

In December 2006, a paper in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry described the case of a 65-year old woman in Japan who could not stop laughing. Brain imaging revealed that abnormal activation in a part of her brainstem explained the strange pathological giggling.