WEBVTT

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The press reports one good C,
that what you were writing

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was that, today\'s meaning
with President Bill Clinton

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was going to be a disaster.

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[non-English narration]

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Well, now for the first time, I
can tell you that your disaster.

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[sil.]

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Two president\'s laugh, then the
whole world laughs along with them.

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In spite of their language barriers,
responsibilities, and differences, and culture,

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and political orientations, laughter
brings them closer than anything else.

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[music]

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[music]

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Main stream science has long ignored laughter.
Most of the questions concerning its origins,

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its functions and mechanism
continued to be unanswered.

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What is it that sets off laughter inside our primary(ph)
brains? Through disease studies of the brain,

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the medical world has shown that there
is no single center for laughter.

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Rather a variety of different zones linked to the phenomenon.
The primitive zones as well as the more recently

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evolved parts of the nervous system
would appeared to be involved.

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[music]

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Laughter is not a reflex, but
rather a complex neuronal program.

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Laughter continues to be a mystery that man

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tries to understand. There are
non conformance(ph) pioneers,

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they invented laughter science.

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They are convinced by this and demonstrate that
laughter is a determining factor in understanding

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mankind and its evolution.

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[sil.]

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A metallic grey Z06 Corvette,

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V8, 437 Horse power. What sort of
scientist is hiding inside this car?

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[music]

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A Neurologist and Behavioral Specialist,
today a Psychology Professor,

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Robert Provine is the ideal person
to begin our investigations.

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For years, Robert Provine has
exclusively studying laughter.

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He has met numerous challenges
relating to his ideas. For many years,

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the biology of laughter was pushed aside in considered to
Pseudo Science, one would choose more poetic than scientific.

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The world is not ready for this office yet.

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Over history, there has been a lot
of concern with laughter which uh…

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most great philosophers had dealt
with the topic of laughter,

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Plato, Aristotle, (inaudible),

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(inaudible), right up to
the present all felt that

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this is something that
had to be dealt with.

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Many have tried to explain laughter.
Thus in 1776,

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Joseph Priestley a chemist discovered
Nitrous Oxide, or Laughing gas.

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Proof was made that laughter is
linked with chemistry and the brain.

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[music]

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In the 1860\'s, a French Physician Duchenne de
Boulogne used a buddy means of photography

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to study different expressions of smiling,
laughter, and the muscles involved.

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In 1872, Charles Darwin, the Naturalist
published the expression of the emotions,

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man, and the animals. He compared the behaviors
of laughter between adults and children,

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and between man and animals.

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Today laughter is studied
at the university.

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[music]

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Here we are in Baltimore, USA.

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Robert Provine is asking the students
to think about the mechanisms

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involved in laughter. Okay,
what I like it here now.

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Okay, it\'s hard to laugh on command. We are gonna get to that
in a minute, but okay. What I like you to do is, let\'s have a

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sample of your ordinary
laughter\'s, best you can do it.

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Okay, now I would like you to hear.
Laugh as fast as you can.

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Laugh as fast? Yes.

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That sounded like a laugh.
Didn\'t sound like a…

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you gonna go like… Laugh
really fast, we like…

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You know, what else. Laugh really
slow now, laugh really slow now.

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Slow. Think you gonna go.

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Okay, my laughing, I am having a seizure.

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My motivation was to learn
about brain and behavior.

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In laughter\'s, an ideal place to look.
But first of all laughter is

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a human universal, and if you want to learn about a
brain mechanism, we don\'t want this person to have it

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and this person not, we want everyone to have
it. We want males and females to have it.

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Members of every culture, and everyone
laughs in pretty much the same way.

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So laughter\'s a good place to look.

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[sil.]

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Little by little, Robert Provine
has established a methodology

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to understand and explain
the phenomenon of laughter.

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[sil.]

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Hard to do that. Our first approach was to
bring people in the laboratory situations,

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such as laboratory hears(ph), show them
comedy material, get them to laugh

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and then analyze the laughter that was
produced. Because, analyzing the laughter

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and not only describe what that sound was,
describes the behavior that produced it.

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[sil.]

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Unfortunately, to analyze laughter, you must get it
to a curve. You have to get someone genuinely laugh.

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This experiment meant with failure and
Robert Provine had to change his method.

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So with the spirit of Jane Goodall
going to Gombe stream preserve

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to study Chimpanzees. Uh… We
went to the student union

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city side walks of urban shopping malls
and looking laughter, uh… there.

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[music]

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Here we are in a cafeteria, the
ideal place for a laughter hunter.

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Robert Provine easily

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fits in to the environment. He studies
and absorbs the humans around him,

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his contemporaries.

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[music]

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Every expression, gesture
and all of the actions

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leading a company or following laughter
made turn out to be significant.

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[music]

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What we found was

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by recording what a person said before they
laugh, first of all what the material was,

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was it all jokey(ph). We found perhaps only
ten or fifteen percent of pre-laugh comments

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were joke like at all.

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When we started to attribute the sex
to the speaker and the audience,

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some striking thing started to appear.
Now, first of all we found that

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males were the best laugh getters.
Both women and men

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laugh more, when men are speaking to them
than when women are speaking to them.

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This is also interesting,
because it\'s not because

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the men decide not to laugh, because
laughter is not consciously controlled.

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So what we have here is the acting
out of this kind of primal dance

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after different individuals
or different sexes.

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So when we are looking at these
relationships, we are getting insights

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to what people really think. For
example, if a women is standing

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near a man and looking him in the eye
standing close to him and laughing a lot.

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This is a very positive thing meaning that the female
is sending a unconsciously controlled message,

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that she is interested in this person.

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[music]

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After pursuing this in other ways,

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uh… we had looked at personal ads and
newspapers, and looking at thousands of these,

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we find that a common theme
of… of in search of ads,

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personal ads of women is they are
interested in man with good sense of humor.

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Men, when they write their ads, often will

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uh… describe their sense of humor. So we have the
basis here where kind of sexual market place.

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Man is a social animal.
Robert Provine is now certain

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that laughter is at the heart of
social connections between humans.

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In short, we rarely laugh alone.

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The history of laughter is extremely difficult to
establish and for good reason, Laughter leaves no trace.

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Laughter will never become a fossil.
So how can one go

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about exploring the origins of
laughter, the very first laughs.

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New doubt, we must look towards the
great apes to try and understand

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the origins of phenomenon between man
and apes, there is a single step,

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only a single step.

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[music]

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Our investigation continues at the
Arnhem zoo in the Netherlands.

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Jan Van Hoof is a pioneer
of the laughter sciences.

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His favorite place to make observations
is at the zoo, his grandfather founded.

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[music]

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Jan Van Hoof is an anthologist. He has devoted
himself primarily to the study of social behaviors

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and emotions in monkeys and in humans.

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Well, what do you think of this?
An expression of rage of anger

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to same which you see in this
gentlemen here and in (inaudible),

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that was some scientist thought that
this mandrill face was the same

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as this expressions ritualize
rage and here in a small child.

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Wrong, completely mistaken,
this is the friendly greeting

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face of the mandrill. The friendly face,

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it shows you how careful you have
to be in jumping to conclusions on

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superficial similarities.
The conclusion is based on

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careful analysis of the antecedents of the
behavior, the reactions of the part of us(ph)

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and you can come to a complete
different conclusion.

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We are farer from the virgin
forests or deep jungles.

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Never the less in Arnhem in 1971,

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Jan Van Hoof set up the best conditions for these assuagement(ph)
of a Chimpanzees colony in an artificial environment.

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[music]

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This living space was the
first of its kind in Europe.

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(inaudible). Jump boy, this one is for you.

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Even as a child. Walking in this zoo

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and watching the monkeys, I was impressed
by so many qualities of their behavior

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that for symbol our human behavior. So
that has fascinated me all the time.

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Then I happened to read Darwin\'s,

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the expression of the emotions in man and animals
and he approached this from a comparative

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and illusion ally perspective,
and then the fascinating thing

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occurs that you think, \"Okay,
there are aspects in our behavior

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that indeed have an evolutionary
history.\" Yeah, Yeah, come in(ph).

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When the play areas being cleaned or during
veterinarian checkup\'s, in spite of the bars

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Jan Van Hoof can visit with an old friend.

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[sil.]

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How are you? How are you? Here he is with mama,
the Elvis of the chimps at 54 years old.

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[sil.]

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[non-English narration]

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[sil.]

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[music]

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For the ethologists, there
is no laboratory work to do.

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Jan Van hoof begins by getting up high.

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[music]

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Well, here we are in (inaudible).

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This is our observation cabin from
which we observe the Chimpanzees.

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Here we have all our equipment,

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uh… I have my video camera
to film a particular shots.

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I have my microphone in which
I have to speak…record

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the record of the behavior and of course
occasionally you want to watch a little bit closer.

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Well, in fact what we do, people think

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observing animal behavior is just a matter of sitting
there and seeing all of these things happen.

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But what is actually the case? Most of
the time they simply groom, they sleep,

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so it\'s a matter not of couple
of hours, or couple of days,

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but weeks of months to
systematically collect behaviors

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to collect observations
in to our computers and

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analyze these man. (inaudible).

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Jan Van Hoof has managed
to decipher the various

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facial expressions of the great apes and understands
when they appear within the context of the play,

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fear, and seduction.

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He is the one who identified
the play face expression.

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A relaxed open mouth expression,
when that fore shadows

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that of human laughter. Here
you see at wide open mouth,

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upper lips covering the teeth
as an intention moving

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in an insipient movement of…
\"I am going to glore you.\"

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And it\'s this muck biting intention
face that has been ritualized

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in to a signal telling, \"I want to play
with you, I am in a play for mood.\"

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Here the small one hits the big one,

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this couldn\'t be serious, of course, both of them
showing a beautiful play face. While still doing that,

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he sticks his tongue out
while he is doing it.

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Here the small one chasing the big one, he
gets a little kiss actually in response.

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And while they are
playing, a laugh, listen.

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[sil.]

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This laughing sound, not as loud as we do,
but that\'s the equivalent of a laughter.

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[sil.]

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Yeah, that was not a expression
that puzzled me tremendously.

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I had these sign and bad tease face,
which you find in many prime mates.

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In most species, my (inaudible), for
instance, bearing a little teeth

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is a signal of submission, because it tell

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I am afraid of you, it\'s derived from
the fear of face and the fear face,

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and that is the nearest to our smile.

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Gosh! We have always thought
that laughter and smiling

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are so to speak, expressions
on the same kind

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but of different intensity. Laughter
being the high intensity form,

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smiling a low intensity from of the same.
That\'s expression for instance in French,

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where you have re(ph) and
su re(ph), an under laugh.

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In German where you have…a little laugh.

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But if you come to think about
it, what is a little laugh?

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A little laugh is not a broad smile.

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If I tell a joke and
it\'s a good joke, I do.

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If it is a…joke like that, I make of a
little laugh and the little laugh is…

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That\'s not broke light.

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In other words, I was fascinated
to see that this means,

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that what we call frontally
brought smiling has

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a quite different origin in
evolution from our laughter.

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Laughter, playful, initiative, we are in a
playful mood, we are going to enjoy ourselves,

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this is going to be fun. Where
has the broad smile comes from,

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don\'t bother, I am friendly, I like you,

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don\'t be anxious, I like you very much.

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To left, you see the
equivalent of our cheese smile

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to the right you see the
equivalent of our laughter face.

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[sil.]

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I have once come here for a long time ago.

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But the study primate laughter, one has to find a way to
make them laugh. This is where Marina Davila Ross comes in,

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for she is Neuroscience Researcher from the university
of Portsmouth. She is here in a short stay in Arnhem.

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Hi! Hi. This is Marina Davila Ross,

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and she is an expert on chimp vocalizations.
And what we are going to do is to see

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whether we can make our
little Yuma(ph) laugh.

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[music]

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Yuma(ph) is a baby chimpanzee,
who is barely four months old.

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She is raised outside the colony, because
her mother didn\'t have enough milk.

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[music]

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There are four of us zoo keepers who take care of
Yuma(ph). We alternate every week with one of us.

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We take her home in the evening.

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We give her the bottle, change her diapers and
the following day bring her back to work.

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[music]

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Here we are in the middle of an
experiment, a tickling session.

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[music]

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Honestly, do not know how many tickling
sessions I have conducted. I am,

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I have been in seven European
zoos, umm… I have also collected

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the data in sanctuaries, umm…
particularly in an Orangutan sanctuary.

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Most young apes like to play
and like to be tickled and

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like to play roughly also, but there are also
some individuals who do not like it so much.

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Very similar to children, I think it\'s interesting
that you can see that already at such a young age.

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
[music]

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
Testing,

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
umm… January 14th, (inaudible) Yuma.

00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
[music]

00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
Monkey or man, the first laughs
are always touchy moments.

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:08.000
[sil.]

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
Infants begins to really laugh

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
around four months of age. The fetus
smiles in the womb at seven months.

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
Once again this chronological distinction is
what differentiates smiles from laughter.

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
[sil.]

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
When you tickle the baby or play peekaboo,

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
and at the moment of surprising twist
in the play for sequence occurs,

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
the little child will answer with…

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
and that develops in to
full blown laughter,

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
which we as grow up.

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
Express our appreciation
that something is funny.

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
[sil.]

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
Before any talking begins,
laughter and smiling

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
allow this establishment of effective,
social, and intelligent relationships.

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
Different ways of laughing, which
are related to as individuals

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
may have genetic links. In fact
identical twins often have laughs

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:33.000
which are strangely the same, even if they
have been educated and tickled separately.

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:43.000
[sil.]

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
Tickle is the primal
stimulus for human laughter.

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
In fact, my candidate for the most ancient
joke is vein tickle. Well, it will be like,

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
\"I am going to get you, I am going to get you.\" It\'s
the only joke that you can tell both to chimpanzees

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
and a human baby.

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
[sil.]

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
Here is a gorilla,

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
umm… an older juvenile gorilla being
tickled by a caretaker who has

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
very close relationship to that
gorilla and that is very important.

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
Umm… Of course, they can be very strong
individuals, but it\'s also important

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
when we interact with it very young
individual to have a close relationship

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
to tickle during the ticking\'s.
Because otherwise,

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
umm… the ape does not respond and that\'s so
similar to how it is with humans. As you can see,

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
uh… the gorilla responds
strongly when it\'s being tickled

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
or even just touched umm… at his hands.

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
He shows his head now. Uh… He wants
to be tickled probably also there.

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
I delayed a stage where
he shows his shoulder,

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
he shows his foot, and then
laughs while he is being tickled

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
and even sure to be for he is being
tickled, he is already producing laughter.

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
[sil.]

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
The key issue in tickle

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
is that you can\'t tickle yourself, because
part of our nervous system cancels out

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
the inputs. So if try to tickle
ourselves by stroking our ribs,

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
part of the nervous system say ignore
that input and here with that input,

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
because it\'s self produced. So to be
tickled, someone else has to do it.

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
Ask yourself this, \"When was the last
time you were tickled by a stranger?\"

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
be rather starving(ph). You are more
likely to call the police, then left.

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
[sil.]

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
For laughter scientists, tickling is a precious
tool. One would imagine that there would be

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
more sophisticated means of study.

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
[sil.]

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
When I read, Robert
Provine\'s umm… work on umm…

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
how chimpanzees produce
this very staccato like

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
vocalizations when they were being tickled.
I found that highly intriguing

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
and how similar these
vocalizations are to humans.

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
That was about the time when I heard
that uh… Bonobos(ph) are able to produce

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
certain vocalizations when they are
being tickled, and that intrigued me

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
and as a result of that,
I wanted to reconstruct

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:58.000
the evolution of laughter by assessing
all the great apes and humans.

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
What we did was, we collected the
tickling sounds of apes and humans,

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
and the tickling cells are
represented here as sonograms.

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
Umm… You see an Orangutan.

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
You hear that it\'s very deep

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
and here is the sound from Gorilla.

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
[sil.]

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
And maybe you can already detect
some more complex sounds in here.

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
Now this is the sound of a Chimpanzee.

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
Umm… Here is uh… a Bonobo(ph) example,

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
and it\'s also quiet fast and complex,

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
similar to the Chimpanzee and there are
also some similarities to the Gorilla.

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
However, there are stronger differences to the Orangutans,
which alter evolutionary for this(ph) away from them.

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
And here is an example of the human sound.

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
And what we did then,

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
when we have the acoustic data.
We used it just like Geneticist

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
use the acoustic data to
reconstruct an evolutionary tree.

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
And what we found was that the
acoustic tree matched exactly

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
the genetic tree and that revealed that
all of these tickling vocalizations

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
came from the same evolutionary
origin which indicates that,

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
all of these vocalizations of the
great apes are Laugh Vocalizations.

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
So therefore, we could trace
back the evolution of laughter

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
to be at least ten to
sixteen million years old.

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
That turns out the steadying the
transition from primate to human laughter,

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
not only tells you how other
primates are different than us,

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
but also explains why we can talk and
other apes can\'t. Here is the case,

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
where laughter can be used as a
tool to study vocal evolution.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
The key event in human vocal evolution

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
turns out to be bipedality. You
know, who would have guessed that.

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
[sil.]

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
This bipedality, the floor access freed
of its mechanical support function.

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
And this permits the second theory,

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
selection for making
fancy sounds of speech.

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
A lot of linguist or Paleolinguists,
individuals interested in

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
the evolution of language which I think has miss
this, because their main concern is the evolution of

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
the brain mechanisms might have to do
with dramatical processes and so on.

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
They are less interested in
lonely matters of breath control,

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
but turns out that breath control is really
the secret to everything, it\'s started there.

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
[music]

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
From laughter to speaking, there is only a
small step, bipedality a crucial event.

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
When man began walking up right,
he stood up laughed and spook(ph),

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
Lennon monkeys have that
in common, laughter.

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
Our other mammals, apparently less evolved,

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
capable of laughter. To answer
this question, one must go to

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
the Washington State campus at Pullman,
in the far North-West of the US.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
Here there is a man who has no doubt
changed our perception about animals.

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
[music]

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
Persuaded that animals feel emotions. He
also has been working counter current

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
mainstream science with extreme difficulty.

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
His name is Jaak Panksepp, and belongs to

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
our select group of laughter scientists.
This is how this high as it is.

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
No one has described laughter in birds.

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
Uh… No one has described laughter
in reptiles. So it is something

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
that distinguishes us mammals and you know,

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
we cannot be sure that every mammal laughs.
It might be just some of them.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
In the beginning of Jaak
Panksepp\'s research,

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
there was play. The rat, like the
scientists, is sometimes playful.

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
And it\'s really a wrestling match.

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
I had a famous Psychologist,
Robert Plutchik visit the lab,

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
all 10 years ago, 20 years ago. And I said,

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
Rob was a great evolutionist and
he hadn\'t ever talked about play

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
and I said, \"Rob, I am gonna show
you something in the laboratory.\"

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
And I brought him up to lab and just put
couple of animals together on the red lights

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
where they are very comfortable. And
they started wrestling each other

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
and he was just amazed. He looked at it
and said, \"Jaak, Jaak, How did you train

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
the animals to fight that way? \" and
I said, \" Rob, I didn\'t train them,

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
evolution did. And by the way, they
are not fighting, they are playing.\"

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
He said, \"Playing. I have
to learn about that.\"

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
[music]

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
Play is one of those things
that people say is frivolous.

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
It\'s just for fun. Well,
if it\'s just for fun,

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
it would not have been built in to the
brain. Play is one of Mother Nature\'s ways

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
for us to learn about other people, and
to find ways to get along with them.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
Through play, you can have fun.
But if you don\'t know

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
how to engage with others,
there will be no fun

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
and there will be a lot of sadness and a
lot of Psychological pain eventually,

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
so we have to cherish play.

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
While following this path, Jaak Panksepp
made a spectacular discovery, Rat Laughter.

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
[music]

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
The discovery of the
laughter was literally,

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
I woke up one morning and said,
\"What if that sound is laughter?\"

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
When I went to the lab and my student
Jeff Burdorf(ph) was waiting for me,

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
I said, \"Jeff, let\'s go tickle some
rats.\" And he looked at me and said,

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
\"Okay\" and we tickled the first rat and

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
they chirped and chirped and chirped. And we tickled the second rat and
they chirped and chirped and chirped, and then the third rat and every rat.

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
Of course, uh… other people
are skeptical of that

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
we collected more and more data that
are pointed in the same direction

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
and our attitude is, you go with the
data, you know. You don\'t go with logic,

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
the data tells you the nature of the world.
And we now know

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
more about rat laughter than we know about
human laughter, at least in the brain.

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
[sil.]

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
When a Rat laughs, it is not audible to the human ear.
The rat emits a series of ultrasonic chuckles at 50 KH.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
In order to hear a Rat laugh,
Panksepp uses an ultrasound detector.

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:48.000
[sil.]

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
We can stimulate Rat laughter by
stimulating specific parts of the brain.

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
And every place you stimulate
that you get a Rat laughter,

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
which is kind…the animal likes it.

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
The animal will turn on the stimulation
themselves, so now we know,

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
what\'s the positive of emotion.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
Jason, how this animal chirp?
Good responder.

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
Umm… He is actually even chirping when
you are holding him, every now and then.

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
Even when you are doing right now. He must have loved me.
If you stop playing and you just leave your hand in there,

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
after a while they start
biting your hand very gently,

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
never hurt you. It\'s their way of
saying, \"Come on, let\'s play.\"

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
[music]

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
Jaak Panksepp is probably, the only person in the world
to freely speak about a very controversial subject,

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
the emotions of animals.

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
So this is our animal laboratory and
we have about 200 animals here.

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
We have happy animals, they have
been bread(ph) for high, trippy,

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
laughter types of sounds. And then on the other
side, there are animals that are not so happy,

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
that do not chirp very much at all.

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
It turns out the animals that chirp a lot, they want
us that are happy or very resistant to depression,

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
and the animals that are sad and do
not laugh as much or chirp as much.

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
They tend to become depress more easily.

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
What is the purpose of tickling Rats?

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
So a study of Rat laughter can lead to

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
an understanding of the chemistry. And the
chemistry can lead us in to new medicines,

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
psychiatric medicines that
can make people feel better,

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
if they are feeling depressed. We
are still in a primitive area,

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
where we have lots of drugs for
depression, but none of them

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
really make people feel good, fast.

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
So if we found one that was not addictive and I think
it would be a wonderful medicine for depression.

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
[sil.]

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
When we hurt, we cry. When things are going well,
we laugh. Laughing is good for the morale.

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
Laughter reinforces our resistance to
infectious diseases and stimulates

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
our immune system. There would seem to be benefits
to our cardiovascular system and stress management.

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
[sil.]

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
Laughter is a sign that
your life is going well.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
A life filled with laughter is a good one.
The question always comes up,

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
\"Does laughter make us healthy?\"

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
Among the members of our greater laughter family, there
is a curious species, one which follows certain rituals

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
which are spreading in
to our western cultures.

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
In order to meet some of the members of these
species, we went to (inaudible) in France,

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
where the annual symposium of the
international school of laughter\'s health.

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
There they do laughter yoga

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
or even laughterology(ph), and they underline the idea
of how more joy needs to be compart(ph) our daily life.

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:28.000
[sil.]

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
[sil.]

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
Laughter Yoga is a fascinating topic. The
(inaudible) and the contagious nature of laughter,

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
whether we call it Yoga or not. Basically,
we laugh when other people laugh.

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
[sil.]

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
Laughter frees us from our individual and
collective worries and what seem to be contagious.

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
So, what makes it contagious?

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
This is a mechanism not only involved in

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
linking people in groups together, but may also
provide insights in to the roots of empathy.

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
You know, what are the
mechanisms allow us to share

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
the feelings of other individuals. Contagious
laughter\'s is one of the places to look

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
and other one for example would be, contagious
yawning. We could also ask the questions,

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
our individuals that are efficient. And uh…
the belly produce contagious behavior,

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
uh… might they show (inaudible)behavior,
uh… might they be prone to autism.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
In fact, there is even some
preliminary evidence indicates

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
that autistic individuals are deficient and
their ability to produce these contagious acts.

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
So here using the unlikely
tools of contagious behavior,

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
would be at contagious laughter,
contagious yawning. And we have something

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
that\'s powerful socially, powerful
philosophically, and also powerful clinically.

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
The issues of contagious
behavior also contributes to,

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
you know the concern with, for
example, the so called Mirror Neurons.

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
[music]

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
Mirror Neurons, a discovery which may be directly
linked to the explanations of the contagious laughter.

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
It is now time to penetrate
inside the brain itself.

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
It was in Parma, Italy, where
this revolutionary discovery

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
in cognitive sciences was first made.

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
The researchers were studying Motor Neurons

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
in (inaudible), which allowed a very
simple action, taking a peanut.

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
[sil.]

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
Act one. The peanut is placed in
front of the monkey. At the instant,

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
when the monkey grabs the peanut, the
neurons in its Cortex are activated.

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
This neuronal activity is
then converted in to a sound.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
Act two-one day without thinking, a researcher takes
a peanut while though immobile monkey is watching.

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
The researchers then
surprised by what he hears.

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
The noise indicating that the neurons are activated.
The neurons are activated in exactly the same way,

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
whether it is the monkey which makes the movement
or it is watching another do the same thing.

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
They have just discovered Mirror Neurons.

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
[music]

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
Professor of Physiology and director
of the department of Neurosciences

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
at the University of Parma, Giacomo
Rizzolatti is the researcher to whom we owe

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
the discovery of Mirror Neurons.
There is no way

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
that we could have known these neurons existed, but their discovery
was not entirely due to random event as is often related.

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
But rather to our specific approach,
our approach was differentiated

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
from others studying the motor system by its
ethological nature. We had a monkey in front of us

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
and we played with it. The traditional approach
was that of conditioning, the monkey is

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
sitting in a chair in front of a screen, he moves
his arm, this allows us to study the cinematic,

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
the dynamics. I think that
our greatest merit(ph)

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
was to use a very different approach to the
traditional way. Through the bias of Ethology,

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
playing with the monkey, we managed to discover something
which has in existence that was difficult to imagine.

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:43.000
[music]

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
After the discovery of Mirror
Neurons from the monkey,

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
the next step was to demonstrate
their existence in the human brain,

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
an analog mechanism which
would reflect actions.

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
We have known for several years now,

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
that when someone sees another person laughing
unconsciously, they see muscles are activated

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
as if they themselves were laughing
for example, physigomatic(ph).

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
Like wise when someone observes another person
crying, they also unconsciously activate,

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
all of these varies with individuals. The same
muscle used, when you are crying themselves.

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
[sil.]

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
See for example, I go in to a room where everyone is
laughing, I will start laughing as well without knowing why.

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
[sil.]

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
In this case, we don\'t speak of empathy

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
but of contagious feelings. And even in
the case of these contagious feelings,

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
we think that Mirror Neurons may
be playing an important role.

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
[sil.]

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
When we first discovered Mirror Neurons,

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
we asked ourselves two questions.
What are they used for,

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
to understand or to imitate something?
The result showed that with monkeys,

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
they are used for understanding and
with humans they are used for both,

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
to understand and to imitate.

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
Mirror neurons are crucial for
mammals when they share feelings

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
with one another to help them understand.
During the course of primate evolution,

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
these Mirror Neurons helped with
the development of imitation,

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
the reinforcement of social cohesion.
It is therefore

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
not surprising that with man, the ultra social
animal, the mirror mechanism became more complex

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
than for other primates and that
there would be a link with laughter.

00:44:55.000 --> 00:45:03.000
[music]

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
That laughter is not specific to
man alone has become certitude,

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
but it has allowed us to better
understand his evolution.

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
Only non conformists(ph) and intro
disciplinary(ph) researchers

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
had been able to adventure in to this very
frontier of science with out the fear of ridicule.

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
[music]

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
Some people say to me, can I prove that

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
the animals have emotions?
And my answer to them is,

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
that is not an appropriate question.

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
Because, science never deals in
proof, science deals in evidence.

00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
And at this moment in time,

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
whether animals have emotions is
supported by an Everest of evidence.

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
By looking at something like laughter

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
and its biological basis, we are
looking at human universal things

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
that bind us together, that don\'t drive us
apart. So I think certainly it\'s not dangerous

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
and it helps us to appreciate things
that bridge… bridge individuals

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
and different cultures, and individuals through out
history and I think it\'s important for that reason.

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
[music]

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
We are learning now that
animals uh… use complex ways

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
to communicate with one another positively.
And that shows us that,

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
we are not only unique to make use
of certain important social skills.

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
[sil.]

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
If I were to come from the planet of Mars
and I looked at humans, I would say,

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
\"Gosh, that\'s remarkable species. Not only do
they build houses and they have four wheels

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
which they move, but they are
constantly doing these barking sounds.\"

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
[sil.]

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
Its remarkable species. Everything is emphatically
supported by our expressive behavior.

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
In that respect, of course,
we are developed almost

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
much farther than any other primate.

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
Laughter has shown itself to be fascinating
tool to study the evolution of tour species.

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
Just as Darwin fore saw, we now know that human
beings share their basic emotions with other animals.

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
To ask ourselves about

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
the evolution of laughter is to better understand the
origins of human society and the social part of our brain.

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
Laughter has enriched

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
this new field of biology, the social
neurosciences. Laughter is serious business.

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:08.000
[music]

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:45.000
[sil.]