Specifically, Kai Alter and his colleagues at the Newcastle University Institute of Neuroscience have thoroughly investigated three different types of laughter: joyous laughter, tickle laughter, and what they have termed "mocking laughter ." And they have shown that when a person hears one of these sounds they are able to differentiate it without seeing the person who emits them. And, what is more interesting, the areas of the brain that are activated when listening to these types of laughter are different, as shown by the images obtained by functional magnetic resonance imaging . The details have been published in the journal Neuroimage .
Laughter is a very important form of non-verbal communication , which allows us to recognize emotions in the people with whom we interact. Alter and his colleagues have announced that the next step will be to investigate the brain networks that are damaged when people suffer from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, which affect both the expression of emotions and the reactions when others laugh.
