Laughter Essay -- Biology Essays Research Papers

Laughter "Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it." --E. B. White Why do people laugh? Laughter is contagious and therapeutic. It helps us cope with stress, and relax with friends. It is an indication of happiness, the sole reason we go on living. But what causes people to laugh? People laugh at jokes, semantic humor, which relies on cognitive ability to process the "humor" therein, or sometimes at slapstick type behavior requiring no intellectual understanding. People laugh at different things and for different reasons, and for the few that are interested at the expense of the frog, it can be interesting to investigate. Every individual varies in their neurological pathways through their "boxes" in their brain to reach the output of laughter from a number of different inputs. Laughter is caused by certain visual or audio stimuli, often by perception of the unexpected or the incongruous. A surprise in expected input can result in an emotional change, however major or minor. As H. Spencer says in his Physiology of Laughter, "the nervous system in general discharges itself on the muscular system in general: either with or without the guidance of the will" (1). Incongruous input causes an emotional change, and in the case of humorous response, resulting in the contraction of facial muscles and certain muscles in the abdomen. The epiglottis half closes the larynx, resulting in giggling, guffawing, or gasping, and tear ducts are activated. These outputs of the nervous system we refer to as laughter can be arrived at through a number of pathways through the boxes of the brain, fabricated in each individual throughout their life to that point. Although different parts o... ...2Bbut%2Bits%2Bbenefits%2Bare%2Bmany,%2Band%2Bunmistakably%2Bclear.%2B%2522%26hl%3Des%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG 6) encontrar el hueso divertido del cerebro , http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=es&sl=en&u=http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro02/web2/mdrejka.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522The%2Borigins%2Bof%2Blaughter%2Bare%2Bprimitive%2Band%2Bstill%2Blargely%2Bnot%2Bunderstood,%2Bbut%2Bits%2Bbenefits%2Bare%2Bmany,%2Band%2Bunmistakably%2Bclear.%2B%2522%26hl%3Des%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG 7) gerencia de la tensià ³n y causas de la tensià ³n , http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=es&sl=en&u=http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro02/web2/mdrejka.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522The%2Borigins%2Bof%2Blaughter%2Bare%2Bprimitive%2Band%2Bstill%2Blargely%2Bnot%2Bunderstood,%2Bbut%2Bits%2Bbenefits%2Bare%2Bmany,%2Band%2Bunmistakably%2Bclear.%2B%2522%26hl%3Des%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG