Research Hit: Your Brain on Laughter

What tickling rats shows about the importance of laughter

Oh, I do like a good laugh, I do. In fact many of us do with humour being a feature of our societies be that in daily interactions to paying money to see comedians to TV and streaming series that are humorous. And this is something that can be seen in all cultures.

But what part of the brain drives this humour and playfulness and are they related? Well, this is not a well-researched area, alas more serious topics get the focus in neuroscience research.

This is where a group researchers around Michael Brecht and Natalie Goveli at the Humboldt University in Berlin come in - see the Germans do have humour! In this research the researchers had the enviable task of making rats first of all feel comfortable in their environment and then playing (chase the hand) and tickling them!