Study proves the obvious - laughter is contagious

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 14 December 2006 23:08

Science - Biology

It’s always amazing to see studies that prove what we already know. The latest laughingly informs us that laughter truly is contagious! LOL :-)

Dr Sophie Scott, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, has had a report published in the Journal of Neuroscience about laughter.

Dr Scott says that: "It seems that it's absolutely true that 'laugh and the whole world laughs with you'. We've known for some time now that when we are talking to someone, we often mirror their behaviour, copying the words they use and mimicking their gestures. Now we've shown that the same appears to apply to laughter, too - at least at the level of the brain."

Results have shown that laughter triggers a response in your brain, which causes you to do the same. The response is also activated when you smile. Try smiling right now, immediately you’ll start feeling good and happy. It’s apparently a way of preparing the facial muscles for laughter.

Using an MRI scanner, the researchers played different sounds to volunteers and then measured the brain’s response. There were all kinds of sounds played, from vomiting to screaming – not just the sounds of raucous or other forms of laughter.

The part of the brain that responds to these sounds is called the ‘premotor cortical region’. This region is responsible for preparing your facial muscles to respond, be it by frowning, showing fear, laughing or otherwise. As you’d expect, when positive sounds were played, there was a greater response than when horrible sounds were heard.

It’s this part of the research that led the scientists to conclude that laughter is contagious, although no doubt the actual report goes into far greater detail.

According to Dr Scott: "We usually encounter positive emotions, such as laughter or cheering, in group situations, whether watching a comedy programme with family or a football game with friends. This response in the brain, automatically priming us to smile or laugh, provides a way of mirroring the behaviour of others, something which helps us interact socially. It could play an important role in building strong bonds between individuals in a group."

All we need now is a study to prove that yawning is also contagious, or that people smile when they’re caught on Candid Camera! Still, I suppose it’s good to have this scientifically confirmed.

If only they could figure out a way to scientifically confirm next week’s lotto numbers… I’d be laughing all the way to the bank! hahaha :-)