this coming from Strong memorial hospital, notorious for feeding people
plutonium in the '40's because "we wanted to see what would happen".
But anyway, Heinlen proposed the idea behind the explanation of why we
laugh. In Stranger in a Strange land, the protagonist pointed out that we
only laugh at things that are wrong with the world. This does of course
leave out the laugh of the conformist, but it is the basis behind most
laughter. Why this is could be explained by the theory on why we're
tickled.
According to studies, I'll confess I don't know which, we get tickled due
to internal conflict. Our bodies naturally reject being touched in that
way as a loss of safety, yet we also internally know that we aren't at a
threat. Hence internal conflict, and our body doesn't know how to react
so it basically responds with a mild form of hysteria. There are other
reasons such as mere nerve reactions to a stimuli such as slowly rubbing
your finger across the inside of your palm. An easy way to tell which is
which is that your body, unless psychologically 'different' won't react in
such a manner to your own touch because it lacks the internal conflict
behind it.
for a better worded version:
http://digitalcity.drkoop.com/news/stories/september/r/tickle.html
My theory is that if we're laughing at things which are wrong with the
world, it stems from a similar internal conflict. We hear something which
appears intrinsically wrong based on our moral programming, yet we find
the situation to be distant from our lives so we respond with a mild
hysteria. For those who laugh at things close to them, it's a matter of
dislike of something, yet not being sure as to whether or not it's wrong,
or blaming themselves, etc...
Hence you'll find poeple with high moral standards that they're sure of
less likely to laugh. Or people who're sure they've been wronged in their
life, or someone close to them has as unlikely candidates for laughter
when a related joke is presented.
On Thu, 30 Nov 2000, scerir wrote:
> Dean K. Shibata, M.D., has discovered that humor appreciation
> - our ability to recognize a joke - appears to be based in the
> lower frontal lobes of the brain. It is the first study that captures
> images of the brain, using functional magnetic resonance imaging
> (FMRI), to determine what areas become active when we experience
> something humorous.
> "Why do we laugh? No one really knows," Shibata said. "But knowing
> which areas of the brain are involved gives us an idea of how humor is
> processed, what functions it may be related to, and ultimately how
> it may have developed. This is important because it provides insight
> into social and emotional behavior, and how we communicate
> and foster relationships."
> Connecting the brain's response to humor, which plays a powerful role
> in shaping our personalities, is significant for many reasons.
> It could aid physicians in diagnosing and treating patients with mental
> illness or mood disorders such as depression, by showing the brain's
> response to positive stimuli. Traditionally, research has focused on the
> brain's response to negative emotions such as fear.
> It could provide surgeons with valuable pre-operative mapping of the brain
> areas critical for maintaining the emotions and social behaviors that
> make up our personalities.
> It advances science, proving the value of new and sophisticated tools
> that can provide glimpses into the brain and how it works.
> It helps to demonstrate that mental activity, even one as evanescent
> and complex as humor, has a physical correlate.
> Other studies, involving stroke and seizure patients, have tried to
> correlate brain abnormalities with either uncontrollable laughing episodes
> or a loss of the sense of humor.
> But in Shibata's research, MRI scans were performed on 13 normal
> volunteers in a series of four exams. The scans directly visualized what
> parts of the brain were involved when the subjects read written jokes,
> viewed cartoons and listened to digital recordings of laughter.
> The MRI scans showed that when the subjects saw the jokes and cartoons
> - tasks that require a decoding of the humorous stimuli - the brain activity
> was most prominent in the ventromedial frontal lobe. This suggests that the
> frontal lobe is responsible for telling us what's funny.
> But when they heard laughter and laughed along internally, a response
> known as contagious laughter, the activity was centered in the anterior
> supplemental motor area. That part of the frontal lobe near the top of the
> brain is normally associated with planning complex movements and
> initiating speech.
> All four scans also showed activity in a small spot at the base of the
> brain, called the nucleus accumbens, an interesting area associated
> with positive emotions in animals and identified as a key site in moderating
> drug addiction.
> Activity in the nucleus accumbens is likely related to our feeling of mirth
> after hearing a good joke and our "addiction" to humor, Shibata said.
>
> http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/pr/News/finding.html
>
>
> [from Adriatic Sea, nov. 30, 10 p.m. local time]
>
>
>
>
>
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