

(This means that damage to any of these regions can impair one's sense of humor and response to humor, experts say.) standing jokes, we measured event-related brain poten. Emotional responses appear to be confined to specific areas of the brain, while laughter seems to be produced via a circuit that runs through many regions of the brain. activation in RH Brodmanns area 21, as well as areas 21 and 37 in the LH (Goel & Dolan, 2001). This is different from what happens with emotional responses. Stimulation of the motor sections evoked physical responses to the joke.

If the frontal lobe finds something potentially funny, it lets the effects of that humor proceed, and sends out an electrical wave through the cerebral cortex. It serves as a gatekeeper of sorts and determines if we’re going to get the joke or not.
#PARTS OF THEBRAIN JOKE FULL#
The eyes couldnt focus, the legs were asleep from sitting on the pot, and the stomach was so jammed up full of crap that the lungs could barely breathe. Subjects were hooked up to an electroencephalograph (EEG) and their brain activity was measured when they laughed. A week and a half later, the brain couldnt think straight. The approach given to these studies was to. While the relationship between laughter and the brain is not fully understood, researchers are making some progress.įor example, Derks traced the pattern of brainwave activity in subjects responding to humorous material. Researchers have constantly used one method to understand the brain and the way it works and that is studying the way each hemispheres work on their own. But researchers have learned that the production of laughter is involved with various regions of the brain. For example, emotional responses are the function of the brain's largest region, the frontal lobe. And we know that certain parts of the brain are responsible for certain human functions. The physiological study of laughter has its own name - gelotology.
