Welcome to Mr Aslanov’s Lessons QUESTION-TYPE BASED TESTS FunEnglishwithme +99894 6333230
research done by Jaak Panksepp from Bowling Green State University, Ohio, into the ultrasonic chirps
produced by rats during play and in response to tickling.
All this still doesn't answer the question of why we laugh at all. One idea is that laughter and tickling
originated as a way of sealing the relationship between mother and child. Another is that the reflex response
to tickling is protective, alerting us to the presence of crawling creatures that might harm us or compelling
us to defend the parts of our bodies that are most vulnerable in hand-to-hand combat. But the idea that has
gained the most popularity in recent years is that laughter in response to tickling is a way for two individuals
to signal and test their trust in one another.
This hypothesis starts from the observation that although a little tickle can be enjoyable, if it goes on
too long it can be torture. By engaging in a bout of tickling, we put ourselves at the mercy of another
individual, and laughing is what makes it a reliable signal of trust, according to Tom Flamson, a laughter
researcher at the University of California, Los Angels. "Even in rats, laughter, tickle, play and trust are
linked. Rats chirp a lot when they play," says Flamson. "These chirps can be aroused by tickling. And they
get bonded to us as a result, which certainly seems like a show of trust."
We'll never know which animal laughed the first laugh, or why. But we can be sure it wasn't in
response to a prehistoric joke. The funny thing is that while the origins of laughter are probably quite
serious, we owe human laughter and our language based humor to the same unique skill. While other
animals pant, we alone can control our breath well enough to produce the sound of laughter. Without that
control there would also be no speech — and no jokes to endure.
