It may sound strange, but several scientists have
elicited "tickle-induced vocalizations" from primates. Penny
Paterson, president of the Gorilla Foundation says that Koko,
the gorilla famous for her sign language abilities, even had a
special "ho, ho," for visitors she liked. And rats apparently
have very ticklish necks. When Bowling Green State University
scientist Jaak Panksepp and his graduate students tickled baby
rats' napes, the rodents emitted high-frequency chirps that
Panksepp interpreted as laughter.
Robert Levinson, psychology professor at the University of
California Berkeley, invited couples into his lab and asked each
partner to discuss something that irritated him or her about the
other partner. The couples who tackled the stressful situation
with laughter not only felt better in the moment, but had higher
levels of relationship satisfaction and stayed together longer
than couples who did not crack a smile.
When you see people laughing, you just can't help but smile.
That is because your brain makes it nearly impossible not to.
That is the result of research from the lab of Sophie Scott, a
neuroscientist at University College London. When she monitored
subjects' brains while she played laughing sounds, she found
that the premotor cortical region of the brain, which prepares
the muscles in the face to move, was activated.
Incidentally, 10 to 15 minutes of laughing a day can burn up
to 40 calories, according to a Vanderbilt University study.
Researchers determined that the increase in heart rate and
oxygen consumption during these funny moments boosted the
burn.
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