Spontaneous and voluntary laughter come from different parts of brain: study
- Scientists from University College London and the National Research Council of Italy identified two distinct brain networks governing laughter, with findings published in the journal Trends in Neurosciences.
- The research team analyzed data from epilepsy patients at the Epilepsy Surgery Center at Niguarda Hospital in Milan, where intracranial electrical stimulation routinely triggers involuntary laughter during pre-surgical procedures.
- Spontaneous laughter involves emotional regulation regions, while voluntary laughter relies on motor control areas supporting conversational coordination, says Sophie Scott of University College London.
- "Studies have shown that laughter can act as a natural analgesic," says co-author Fausto Caruana, suggesting the identified neural circuits could help decode social communication and treat psychiatric disorders.
- Scientists suggest the spontaneous network is an ancient evolutionary pathway for social bonding, and they intend to continue investigating the role of these circuits in pain modulation.
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Spontaneous and voluntary laughter come from different parts of brain: study
Until now, the brain regions underlying laughter were not well understood, in part because it's hard to elicit genuine laughter in the lab.
You meet someone to have coffee, perhaps for the first time, common in time of dating applications. You talk and, if the thing goes well, you put short fragments of soft laughter at the end of their sentences. “I listen to you”, “I like what you say”, interprets, and returns you more laughter in chosen moments, measuring volume and duration. Sometimes, even, you laugh in sync. But, at a given moment, a certain anecdote rips off a contagious laug…
When a person has an uncontrolled laugh attack, different brain areas are activated than when he laughs at a joke or a funny situation, neuroscientists say that they have investigated what happens in the brain when we laugh.Keep reading...
Awake Brain Probes Map Spontaneous vs. Fake Laughter
A new study analyzing awake brain stimulation data reveals that human laughter is driven by two separate networks: an ancient, emotional "spontaneous" circuit and a motor-driven "volitional" circuit that evolved alongside speech to regulate complex social conversations.
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