Joseph Stephen Breese Morse

July 18, 2005

Have you ever seen someone laugh uncontrollably at something? Have you seen someone having such a good time that they accidentally laugh milk through their nose? Or how about a little baby who is learning to laugh for the first time? Chances are that you have seen these and, chances are, they have brought a smile to your face or even made you laugh a little yourself.

If this image makes you grin a little, there may be a good reason for that.

There is a good reason for this reaction and it's not because the person you're looking at has a funny face when they're laughing. It happens because we humans actually feel what other people are feeling as we see them in action. You actually want to laugh when you see someone else laugh even if you don't know what they're laughing at because you are empathizing with them. If you don't believe me, have a look at videos of just people laughing and see for yourself how you react. You may be surprised that watching people laugh may cause you to laugh a little.

This imitation trait, found in many animals explains a lot about how we learn and relate to people. We can learn by experiencing what other are experiencing, just by looking at them.

Recently, a series of experiments on monkeys by Giacomo Rizzolatti showed that motor neurons in a specific part of the brain that were active when a monkey did a physical action like picking up a peanut were also active when a monkey just watched someone else picking up the peanut. Seeing something triggered the same brain cells that doing something triggered. This shocking discovery led to tests on humans and it was discovered that humans have these so-called mirror neurons as well. In fact, the mirror neuron is one of the most important factors in humans' ability to learn. Infants learn solely by watching and trying to repeat and the mirror tendency carries through to adulthood.

This explains how athletes can get better at their sport just by watching others play the game well. It also explains why sometimes, when I'm watching a football game, I involuntarily move my arms when I watch a wide receiver going for a catch. When I watch the action, part of my brain thinks that actually in the game.

It may sound bizarre but these mirror neurons are why you can't help but yawn when you see someone else doing it. Yawns are contagious, just like laughing is, because seeing someone yawn makes you empathize with the yawner's need for oxygen.

If you turn this process around, this discovery by Rizzolatti means that we can actually influence someone's behavior just by acting a certain way ourselves. We can give someone an actual sense of joy if we are full of joy ourselves and displaying it by laughing or smiling.

Interestingly enough, if the smile or laugh in question was artificial, the perpertrator probably wouldn't be able to stimulate the mirror neurons in your noggin'--they're way too discerning for that.

Only genuine smiles and laughs will trigger the mirror neurons and your brains knows the authenticity more than you think.

Evidently, genuine laughing and smiling is hard, if not impossible, to fake. If you try to produce a fake laugh, for instance, you'll no doubt produce a chuckle that is similar in frequency to your typical speech voice. However, when naturally laughing, most people raise the frequency of their laughing sounds from their normal voice frequency (270 Hz from 120 Hz for males and 400 Hz from 220 Hz for females). This is hard to detect consciously, but easy for or mirror neurons to detect. Similarly, if one fakes a smile, it is easily detected by our subconscious mind, though not easily detected by our conscious. When someone raises the corners of their mouths, we immediately think smile, but a genuine smile is actually in the eyes. The orbicularis oculi, a muscle that surrounds each eye, contracts in a real smile and while that's not what we think of as a smile, it's something our brain takes in to interpret whether our friend really liked our joke about what the ocean said to the beach, or is giving us a sympathy smile.

If you're like me, you'll even be able to interpret a fake laugh from a real laugh even when it's just written. I pose this question to you, which stimulates your mirror neurons more and looks funnier to you: "Te-he-he-he..." or, "Huh-huh-huh-huh..." If you picked the latter representation, you agree with laugh scientists who have determined that that's pretty much how people sound when they laugh, not, "Te-he-he-he..." or "Ha-ha-ha-ha..." Ironically, another way one can determine (unscientifically) if someone really doesn't think something is funny is if they say, "that's funny." If they have to tell you they think it's funny instead of being occupied by laughing their buns off, it's probably not funny to them.

However, though we can't fake a smile or laugh, that shouldn't stop us from trying to spread joy through targeting others' mirror neurons. It should encourage us to just become authentically happy when we interact with people. For some, that may seem like a daunting task, but if you have any trouble finding something to be truly happy about, check to make sure you're breathing, then be happy that you have functioning lungs. Still not happy? Wiggle all your toes and fingers and be happy that you have them. My point is not to get people to look at you strangely as your digits go dancing, it's to encourage gratefulness and joy. Once you've found happiness in all the great things you have going for you, feel free to smile about it.

I'm not trying to come across as a pollyanna (not that there's anything wrong with that), but I believe a combination of feeling joyful about one's current state and the ability to spread that joy through our innate learning mechanisms can lead to a happier world in general. Just imagine if you were to dig down deep and find some joy in your life then smile at some stranger. No doubt this would trigger the mirror neurons in his or her brain and it would bring joy to them as well. Imagine if that person were to smile at another and he or she would smile at yet another and so on. Eventually, that smile could work its way around the world and potentially back to you, perhaps at a time when you need it most. Now, that would be something to smile about!

See also:
Spot the Fake Smiles
Laughing Matters
A Genuine Smile Goes A Long Way