Many people believe that humans are a special kind of animal. Only humans can laugh, and no other animals can laugh. However, a new study found that laughter and happiness are not exclusive to humans. Not only do other animals laugh, but they also have a history of laughing much longer than humans. This research result was published in the latest issue of "Science" magazine.
Scientists have always paid great attention to human laughter, and related research has been in-depth. They found that when the human brain was in its evolutionary stages, humans were able to laugh before they learned to speak. Some people even assert that laughter is the characteristic that distinguishes humans from other animals, and other animals do not laugh.
Is this conclusion correct? New research finds that laughter and happiness are not exclusive to humans. Even before humans started laughing, some other animals learned to laugh long ago. This means that animals actually laugh earlier than humans. Zach Panksepp, a professor of psychobiology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, USA, said that it is no accident that we humans laugh. Laughter is the result of long-term human evolution. Human laughter actually originates from animals. Before humans, Many animals not only learned to play, but also learned to laugh.
Panksepp has been studying rats. He found that rats like to play and often emit the most primitive laughter. He noted that after years of research, he came to the conclusion that animal laughter is the basis of human happiness. In the process of studying laughter, scientists mostly focus on issues related to laughter, such as humor, personality, healthy body, and social theory. Panksepp's research results on laughter itself immediately aroused the scientific community's attention. Highly concerned.
Research shows that the "circuit" of laughter exists in every ancient area of ??the human brain. Scientists point out that humans first learned to play and then developed language. In the process, the parts of the human brain responsible for happiness had new connections. These parts had evolved before the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for thinking and memory.
In the early stages of a child's development, the ability to laugh is revealed. Anyone who has ever made a baby laugh knows this. New evidence shows that many other mammals also make sounds during play, similar to human laughter. Therefore, some scientists believe that animals, like humans, are capable of expressing many emotions. Tecumseh Fettke, a psychology lecturer at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said: "In fact, the animal brain, like the human brain, controls pain, pleasure, fear and desire. This understanding by neuroscientists once again illustrates that we humans It's important to realize that there are similarities with other animals."
In a 2003 study, Panksepp and Bowling Green State University neurobiologist Jeff Boe. Gedover demonstrated that if rats are tickled while playing, they are prone to producing a distinctive laugh. If researchers tease the mouse frequently, the mouse will easily form a conditioned reflex, and it will laugh as long as it is teased gently. Some mice haven't even been tickled yet and will start laughing at the sight of the hand of the person who is about to tickle them. Just think of wagging your finger to make a child laugh. The same goes for making a mouse laugh.
Understanding mice laughter may help scientists better understand human laughter, they say. "Deciphering the mouse joke code is a very important goal for future research," Panksepp wrote in the paper published in the journal Science. "Such knowledge could help us understand how the human brain controls laughter." Robert Provine, a professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, also believes that human laughter is the result of continuous evolution and is derived from tickling and playing.
Provine once wrote a book, "The Scientific Investigation of Laughter." Scientists studied chimpanzees and discovered that there is a connection between their noise-like laughter and human laughter. Provine pointed out: "Literally speaking, laughter is actually the sound made during play. It originally referred to the laborious breathing movement, which means that the body is playing. Later, this movement evolved into the 'haha' laughter of today's humans.
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By studying the transition between chimpanzees gasping and humans laughing, scientists have discovered that breathing control is the key to the formation of human laughter and speech functions. Many scientists believe that laughter in the brain And the origins of play are instinctive. If this argument is correct, then many of the instinctive behaviors of other animals could help researchers better understand consciousness and other features of humans that may be more conscious than ours, Provine said. Think less and we may overestimate the impact of our awareness and consciousness on our lives. As for laughter, it is not controlled by our consciousness. We can control our speech, but we cannot control our laughter. Scientists believe that if they truly understand human laughter, they may also be able to find ways to deal with depression and other unhealthy emotions.
For years, chimpanzees have been observed laughing in their own unique way. Squids and even cuttlefish in aquariums will "play" with people. They will swim to the surface of the tank and spray water at their owners for fun, and dogs have been confirmed to be like humans who walk on two legs. Like friends, they also like to laugh. Researchers found that when dogs play, they make a sound that is equivalent to laughter, which is "breathy and heavy breathing" and has a higher pitch than ordinary dog ??panting. , sounds just like "hee hee hee," except that the vowels are far less pronounced. In experiments conducted in parks and animal shelters, they played recordings of dog laughter to 15 dogs, and the dogs heard it. Then they all bowed their heads to other dogs in the room, making what is known as "playful bowing" in dog behavior. Some dogs grabbed the ball and passed it to other dogs, while other dogs struggled with each other or played with each other. Just like humans, happiness is contagious among dogs.
In nature, there are also some animals that laugh like humans and primates. There is a kind of salamander in the Mediterranean that laughs while swimming. There are many muscles around the swim bladder of this fish. When it swims, the muscles are in different contraction states, and it makes a human-like laugh. There is a kind of laughing cow in the Dalian area. Its throat has a sound-insulating membrane, which vibrates violently and makes a "hahaha" laugh. People vividly call this kind of cow "hahaha cow". ” or “Laughing Cow”, and because their calls sound like an ancient old man laughing heartily, people also call them “Laughing Old Man”.
There is a kind of laughing bird living in the Australian forest. The locals call it "Kukabala". This kind of bird is an expert at catching snakes. When catching snakes, they first use the hooked mouth to hold the snake up in the tree and then pick it up from the air. The snake dropped it to death and then chewed it slowly. They laughed "haha" while eating, as if celebrating their victory. There is also a bird in the coniferous forest in Sweden with more than 10 feather fans on its body. , forming more than 10 films. When they fly, the air violently impacts the film on the fan, and the film will make a loud, cheerful sound similar to a human being's "laughing"
This proves laughter. Not only do we transcend race, culture and religion, but barriers between species do not constitute a barrier. Perhaps this is one of the important reasons why we love animals so much. They are not only loyal and affectionate, but also very funny.