Panksepp has been studying mice. He found that mice like to play and often make the most primitive laughter. He pointed out 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, and Panksepp's research results on laughter itself immediately attracted great attention from the scientific community.
Research shows that the "circuit" of laughter exists in every ancient area of human brain.
Scientists point out that human beings learned to play before they had a language. In this process, those parts of the human brain responsible for happiness have new connections, and these parts have evolved before the cerebral cortex responsible for thinking and memory.
In the early stage of children's development, the ability to laugh is revealed, and anyone who makes a baby laugh knows this. The latest evidence shows that many other mammals also make sounds when playing games, similar to human laughter. Therefore, some scientists believe that animals, like humans, have the ability to express a variety of emotions. Tecumseh Fetek, a lecturer in psychology at St Andrews University, said: "In fact, the animal brain controls pain, happiness, fear and desire just like the human brain. This understanding of neuroscientists once again shows that we humans are similar to other animals, and it is very important to realize this. "
The mouse laughed happily.
In a study in 2003, Panksepp and Jeff Bergdorf, a neurobiologist at Bowling Green State University, proved that if mice were scratched while playing, they would easily give out unique laughter (of course, they would not laugh like humans). If researchers often tease mice, mice can easily form conditioned reflex. Just tease it gently and it will laugh. Some mice were not even tickled, but when they saw the hands of people who wanted to tickle, they began to laugh. Think about the way you shake your fingers to tease children and make mice laugh.
They say that understanding the laughter of mice may help scientists better understand the laughter of human beings. In a paper published in Science, Panksepp wrote: "Deciphering the mouse joke code is a very important goal for future research. Such knowledge can help us understand how the human brain controls laughter. " Robert provine, a professor of psychology at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, also believes that human laughter is the result of constant evolution, which comes from scratching and slapstick.
Studying animal laughter helps to study human laughter.
Provine once wrote a book, The Scientific Investigation of Laughter. Some scientists have found that there is a connection between their laughter like noise and human laughter by studying chimpanzees. Provine pointed out: "Literally, laughter is actually the sound made during the game. At first, it refers to the violent breathing action, that is, the body is playing, and later this action evolved into human' haha' laughter. "
By studying the transition between chimpanzee panting and human "haha" laughter, scientists found that the key to the formation of human laughter and speech function is respiratory control. Many scientists believe that laughter and games in the brain come from instinct. If this argument is correct, then many instinctive behaviors of other animals can help researchers better understand consciousness and other characteristics of human beings. Provine said, "For example, our consciousness may be less than we think, and we may overestimate our consciousness and its influence on our lives. For laughter, it is not controlled by our consciousness. We can control our speech, but we can't control laughter. " Scientists believe that if they really understand human laughter, it is also possible to find ways to deal with depression and other unhealthy emotions.