The researchers are finding a five-minute window where people are tuned in to each other’s brain rhythms before the effect is lost. Yes, laughing together does enhance neural synchrony, but the unexpected catch is: not for long. It’s this final phase that shows whether laughter can stimulate brain synchrony.Įarly results for the adult experiments include a surprise. ‘It’s really a social signal and, in research terms, it’s the missing piece of the puzzle.’īrain-imaging technology, worn like a swimming cap, is capturing brain activity while participants watch funny videos, laugh over a silly word game and interact freely. ‘We think that laughter might be really conducive to bringing people’s brains onto the same wavelength,’ said Höhl. It’s the first time that researchers have looked at the dynamics of two brains interacting in real time and at the impact of laughter – for both adults and children. The result is that communication is smoother and interaction and cooperation are facilitated. When two minds tune in to the same wavelength, they process information more quickly. Speech and music are already known to help synchronise brain rhythms between people. The two experts are pairing up volunteers to observe their brain activity when both laugh at something at the same time, employing some of YouTube’s most amusing animal antics to provide the entertainment.īrain activity is rhythmic. It’s the goings-on inside the brain that Pletti and Höhl want to know more about in the two-year project, which runs until March 2024. Who doesn’t feel better after an evening of laughing with friends? It releases endorphins in the body that give a warm feel-good factor. Laughter’s ability to break the ice and pave the way to social bonding is easy enough to grasp. ‘Yet if we want to increase people’s well-being, we must increase the positive as well as reduce the negative.’ ‘Positive emotions, like laughter, are not so well researched because their societal and clinical impact are not as immediate,’ said Dr Carolina Pletti, a researcher at the University of Vienna. There’s a clinical requirement to understand more about these emotions to be able to treat patients effectively. In psychology and neuroscience research, laughter has been overshadowed by the pressing medical need to study negative emotions that affect mental health such as anxiety and fear. Höhl is working on the Laughing Together project, one of two EU-funded studies bringing a new focus to the subject of happiness. ‘Laughter is so central to our human experience of coordinating and interacting with other people, but we don’t know much about it,’ said Stefanie Höhl, a professor of developmental psychology at the University of Vienna in Austria. Yet there’s very little science on how this works. Laughter is a social glue that binds people together, helping to navigate and smooth all manner of experiences and encounters. An infant’s first giggle at around four months enchants and reinvigorates even the most weary parent and, from then on, it’s a lifelong tool for communicating with the world. While people the world over enjoy a good laugh, remarkably little is known about this instinctive behaviour.īefore babies can talk or walk, they can laugh.
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