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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

The dynamics of laughter.

The benefits of humor have been accepted throughout human history. Humor is widely accepted for its positive physiological and psychological effects in a variety of situations. The psychiatric literature purports humor as an effective tool in psychiatric illness and psychotherapy. The benefits of humor in business, management, and education are also being described because the right perspective facilitates problem solving both interpersonally and in a group setting, and humor puts people at ease, promoting expression and the exchange of ideas. In the nursing literature, humor and laughter are increasingly presented as an approach that can assist the nurse in meeting health-related goals and objectives. Not only can humor benefit the patient, but the use of humor can facilitate effective management of staff and others encountered in the health care setting. Humor also has negative functions. Although the nursing literature on humor identifies that there are some situations in which humor is contraindicated, little attention is given to the problem created for the nurse when others, i.e., patients or family members, fellow staff members, or physicians, laugh inappropriately. This article discusses the assessment of laughter. Benefits of laughter and humor are described. The causes of inappropriate laughter are outlined, and the dynamics of inappropriate laughter are considered. Finally, implications for nursing practice are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1975

Humorous laughter in children.

This experiment examines the notion that the sharing of humor enhances overt expressive responses (laughter and smiling) and humor ratings. Independent groups of seven- to eight-year-old children listened on headphones to amusing material. They were tested alone or in dyads or triads with confederates of the same sex. In triads, duration of laughter and smiling was inversely related to the amount that confederates looked at one another; this was the case whether confederates were thought to be listening to the same or different recordings. Laughter and smiling scores support the notion that sharing the social situation is crucial in the facilitation of "humorous laughter." A theory of socially facilitated laughter is proposed which draws upon social-facilitation drive theory and the tension-reduction aspects of humor theory.

Child↗
PubMed1991

Normal and pathologic laughter in children.

Laughter is a partly involuntary act involving complex pathways in the central nervous system. Laughter normally has positive effects on emotions; however, pathologic laughter is not related to emotion and occurs independent of a stimulus in the environment. This paper outlines normal laughter and the etiology of pathologic laughter, considering both congenital and acquired causes.

Child↗
PubMed1979

Epileptic laughter: electroclinical and cinefilm report of a case.

A woman, aged 30, experienced attacks of pathological laughter which began during the first months of life; they meet the qualifying criteria of epileptic laughter. Several attacks were recorded by polygraphy and cinefilm. The attack begins with a feeling of unreality associated with a forced, involuntary smile progressing to full laughter. The patient tried to mask the laughter which was not accompanied by euphoria but was followed by loss of consciousness and automatisms. Only during the latter phase of the previously normal EEG did an ictal discharge appear over the right hemisphere. On the basis of the electroclinical pattern and of a review of the literature, the seizure is tentatively explained in terms of a progressive ictal involvement of temporodiencephalic structures.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Personal evaluations, laughter, and affective judgments.

Fifty-six subjects read positive or negative evaluations of their personality made by a bogus same-sex peer and then rated their immediate feelings. A second group of 22 subjects rated their feelings after reading the evaluations of a third person. It was found that personal evaluations evoked more spontaneous laughter than did the evaluation of a third person (p less than .001). Inclusion of the factor of laughter in the experimental design disclosed that subjects who laughed felt more pleasant than those who did not laugh (p less than .008) and that laughter was associated with affective state only in the negative evaluation condition (p less than .003).. Also, positive evaluations made the subjects feel good, and negative ones made them feel bad (p less than .001). Results seemed to suggest that extreme affective arousal engenders laughter which, in turn, alters the judgments of one's affective state.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Posterior fossa tumors with pathological laughter.

Of two patients with posterior fossa tumor and pathological laughter, one had extrinsic compression of the brain stem; the other had an intrinsic brain-stem lesion. Surgical removal of the epidermoid from the cerebellopontine angle cured the laughter. The euphoria of multiple sclerosis with paroxysmal laughter and a feeling of joy is to be differentiated from cases in which pathological laughter is a presenting complaint.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

[Preparoxysmal fits of laughter from misformation of the hypothalamus (author's transl)].

Fits of laughter have been described in a number of instances with a differentiation made between primary and secondary fits. Fits of laughter in the case of pubertas praecox resulting from a hyperplastic deformation at the base of the IIIrd ventricle have not been observed as yet. The case here described shows that fits of laughter of this type can be observed prior to commencement of the actual epileptic fit itself. A short description if given of how normal laughing and crying comes into being, referring to the relevant literature.

Brain Neoplasms↗
PubMed1977

Gaze-induced laughter.

Pathological laughter was stimulated by pursuit eye movements with a large extramedullary brainstem tumour. Laughter was also evoked by intense direct light. The mechanism by which visual stimuli could induce pathological laughter is discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Fits of laughter (gelastic epilepsy) with a tumour of the floor of the third ventricle. A video tape analysis.

A patient with fits of laughter due to a tumorous alteration (hyperplasia) of the floor of the third ventricle is described with electroencephalographic findings indicative of focal epilepsy (complex partial seizures = psychomotor fits). The laughter is interpreted as an inborn emotional expression with structural substrate in the hypothalamus and neighboring brain. With structures remaining intact functional disorders in this area can cause epileptic phenomena with participation of the limbic system.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Epileptic laughter with precocious puberty.

A child with associated epileptic laughter and precocious puberty is reported. The significance of epileptic laughter as a possible marker of hypothalamic disease is noted.

Brain Diseases↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Laughter and tears: specific behaviors of humans].

Ethology is connected with attachment, deprivation experiment, territorial stress by animals, then by humans. Ethopsychiatry attends, among other things, to classic clinical approach in ethological perspective, to ethopharmacology, with animal models of depression and anxiety. It is interesting to include the theme of laugh and crying in human ethology, as a specific human like behaviour. Interest for animal and human suffering participates to medical act. Most of studies about crying were focused on human specificity of emotional (psychogenic) tears. Laughter as a specific human phenomenon is the best remedy against stress, also to give pleasure to your self and to other people (Acta....

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Laughter therapy for patients with cancer.

Humor is an important part of life. Care should be taken to ensure that humor persists even during the bleakest times for patients, families, and medical personnel. Laughter eases the mind, defuses tension among people, and has positive physiologic effects on patients. Facilitated nursing intervention with humor helps to inject this important facet of life into difficult scenes. One successful approach to introducing humor into the hospital setting is a hall-roving "Laugh Mobile." Its humorous novelties, books, and films help divert the attention of suffering patients to lighter thoughts.

Adult↗