Laughing at, or laughing with? Researchers find our brain can distinguish between types of laughter

Different types of laughter make our brains react in different ways, a new study has shown.
 
Scientists from the University of Tuebingen in Germany investigating the 'laughter perception network' found that parts of our brains sensitive to processing high-level, social information reacted most to 'joyous' and 'taunting' laughter, The Daily Mail reports.

Yet, regions of our brain that are more sensitive to picking up and registering more complex sounds reacted most to 'tickling' laughter.

'Laughing at someone and laughing with someone leads to different social consequences,' said study leader Dr Dirk Wildgruber.

Wildgruber's study confirms that the brain is able to recognise the difference between types of laughter.

It can determine whether someone is laughing through mockery, humour, joy or simply as a response to being tickled.
Patterns of brain connectivity can impact cognitive function in health and disease.

Stimulus that affects these patterns could be used to test alternative treatment methods, and assess how disease reacts to certain brain changes.

Though many people laugh when they’re tickled, ‘social laughter’ in humans can be used to communicate happiness, taunts or other conscious messages to peers.

Social laughter is used in a 'conscious and goal-directed manner' to influence and modify other people's attitudes and behaviours.

Tickling laughter is seen in non-human primates and is linked to play and social bonding.

In humans, reflex-like tickling laughter had evolved to encompass much more complex social functions which could be both positive or negative.

During the study, Wildgruber scanned the participants brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans.

The scans were used to study peoples’ neural responses as they listened to three kinds of laughter: joy, taunt and tickling.

From the scans, Wildgruber's team found that joyous and taunting laughter produced different connectivity patterns in parts of the brain involved in sound association, thinking and visual imagery.

These different kinds of laughter then spark different connections in the human brain, depending on their context.

The researchers then found that brain regions sensitive to processing more complex social information were activated when people heard joyous or taunting laughter, but not when they heard the ‘tickling laughter’.

These dynamic changes activated and connected different regions depending on the kind of laughter participants heard.

Professor Wildgruber said that although some previous research has examined how speech can influence these patterns, this study is among the first few to examine non-verbal vocal cues like laughter.

The findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE.