Humor perception involves the whole brain and serves to integrate and balance activity in both hemispheres.
Derks, at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, has shown that there is a unique pattern of brain wave activity during the perception of humor. EEG’s were recorded on subjects while they were presented with humorous material.
Laughter truly is the best medicine!
During the setup to the joke, the cortex’s left hemisphere began its analytical function of processing words. Shortly afterward, most of the brain activity moved to the frontal lobe which is the center of emotionality. Moments later the right hemisphere’s synthesis capabilities joined with the left’s processing to find the pattern — to ‘get the joke’.
A few milliseconds later, before the subject had enough time to laugh, the increased brain wave activity spread to the sensory processing areas of the brain, the occipital lobe. The increased fluctuations in delta waves reached a crescendo of activity and crested as the brain ‘got’ the joke and the external expression of laughter began. More about how stress affects our brain right here.
Derks’ findings shows that humor pulls the various parts of the brain together rather than activating a component in only one area. Your sense of humor provides a powerful antidote to immuno-suppressive effects of stress in two ways, through:
- Direct effects of humor and laughter upon the immune system,
- Indirect effects resulting from humor’s ability to help you cope on the tough days.
The simple truth is that happy people generally don’t get sick.
Bernie Siegel, M.D.
Read more about laughter on Wikipedia right here.