Laughing at Ourselves and Others - How Does Humor Make Us Better People?

Most people would probably agree that both people and animals (e.g., dogs or dolphins), can enjoy themselves. However, most people would likewise agree that humor is somewhat different from plain joy. How can we really tell the difference, though?

The term 'humor' stems directly from the Latin word humor, meaning moisture. Why is that? It originates from the ancient theory in Greco-Roman medicine, where four different body fluids (humors: blood, yellow bile, black bile, phlegm) determine one’s personality traits. An imbalance of one may cause either choleric, sanguine, melancholic, or phlegmatic temperament – none of which is particularly cheerful [1]. This theory concerns ancient physicians like Hippocrates and Galen, but what is the philosophers' point of view?

Nowadays, philosophy is not usually perceived as extraordinarily funny either, thanks to Plato and Socrates, who heavily influenced our rather serious philosophic tradition. Yet, one man is known as the `Laughing Philosopher´ – Democritus of Abdera. Historic reports call him a cheerful person and he was always amused by people's foolishness [2]. Indeed, today, we would agree that humor means taking oneself less serious and laughing about one's own foolishness.

A day without laughter is a day wasted

Humor enables us to step back from life’s struggles and confronts us with our own faults, while remaining free of moral persecution. Humor has furthermore helped people endure misfortune, misery, and tyranny. Diogenes of Sinope, better known as the founder of Cynic philosophy, was well known for embarrassing and sabotaging his fellow philosophers Plato and Socrates. He also made continual inappropriate jokes about the Macedonian king and Emperor Alexander the Great [3]. Modern comedy often unknowingly follows Diogenes’ footsteps, as cynicism and sarcasm are still very popular in political cabaret and satire. Thereby, the ancient cynics never mocked in vain, but rather imagined how people could live a good and happy life, free from the pursuit of fame and glory.

Thus, it is not disrespectful to call the antique philosophers the first popular entertainers, as they all tried their best to delight people. This is what they have in common with timeless modern day humorists like Monty Python. Another example is Charlie Chaplin, who, in total contrast to antique rhetoricians, did so without uttering a single word. He knew that “A day without laughter is a day wasted”*.

[1] http://bit.ly/1uRN3pe

[2] http://bit.ly/1s2k1jO

[3] http://bit.ly/1BQb16T

* But see http://bit.ly/1zvJ1Hp

Bettina Schmerl, PhD Student AG Shoichet

This article originally appeared 2015 in Vol 08, Issue 01, Humor

April Fools' Day

Right, this article does not have much to do with the brain and nope, there are no serious PubMed articles on the effects of April fools' pranks on the central nervous system. However, considering that April is approaching, this might be of general interest.
April Fools' Day is not a national holiday. Still, traditionally, it is well known in most of the western world. Every year on the first of April, people play practical jokes on each other. People are sent on errands that do not exist or are made to believe ridiculous things. The joke is then revealed by shouting out “April fool!” (or “April, April” in Germany).

'Washing of the Lions' hoax from 1857Credit: http://bit.ly/1EQgssI

The origin of this tradition is unclear, but reports date back to the 17th century in Germany. The press and other media tend to report hoax stories on this day, and the stories are revealed as fake on the subsequent days. The BBC did a famous hoax on April 1, 1957, presenting a documentary on how spaghetti can be harvested from spaghetti trees. Hundreds of listeners then called them, inquiring about how to grow spaghetti trees themselves [1].
Google is also famous for its April fools' hoaxes. In 2005, they announced the marketing of the drink Google Gulp. They claimed that it analyzes the DNA of the drinker in real time and carefully adjusts neurotransmitters to enhance intelligence while using the Google search engine. How, you might ask? Well, according to Google this works through a patented technology that involves monoamine oxidase inhibition. It was offered in four flavors: Glutamate Grape, Sugar-Free Radical, Beta Carroty, and Sero-Tonic Water [2].
Easy to identify as a hoax for us scientists, don't you think? Of course, on other topics we might be just as susceptible to hoaxes as others. Maybe this year everybody reading the CNS Newsletter will be a little better prepared!

[1] http://goo.gl/YZ91EN
[2] http://goo.gl/0L8aUY

by Ann-Christin Ostwaldt, PhD Alumna (AG Fiebach)

This article originally appeared March 2015, Vol. 08, Issue 01, Humour

When Laughing Is Not Funny: Pseudobulbar Affect

Bursting into laughter disproportionate to the context or even with no apparent reason; you have either experienced this yourself or witnessed it. Imagine this reaction multiplied in intensity, duration, and frequency, but also manifesting emotions from the other end of the emotional spectrum -- uncontrollable laughing and crying.

Pseudobulbar affect (PBA) is a condition occurring in patients with neurological disorders like stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Alzheimer’s disease. Patients experience exaggerated, uncontrollable, and involuntary outbursts of laughter or crying inappropriate to the context in which they occur [1].

The pathophysiology of PBA is obscure. Neuroimaging [2] and electrophysiological [3] evidence implicates the cortico-pontine-cerebellar circuit (CPCC). The CPCC integrates contextual information from the cortex and provides an accurate and congruent emotional response. Its dysfunction results in inappropriate or unscaled emotional responses.

Crying when happy, laughing when sad

 

The neurotransmitter serotonin, which modulates functions closely associated with mood, sleep, sex, and appetite, and is disturbed in many mood disorders, seems to be closely related to PBA. Based on this, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are often prescribed for PBA [4]. Likewise, glutamate acts on many brain structures around the CPCC and a reduction of its increased excitatory activity may be beneficial for BPA patients [3].

PBA is expected to become more common as the number of patients with neurological disorders increases. This will necessitate a more thorough understanding of its pathophysiology to provide better treatment.

[1] Arciniegas et al, CNS Spectr, 2015

[2] Parvizi et al, J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci, 2009

[3] Haiman et al, J Neurol Sci, 2008

[4] Schiffer and Pope, J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci, 2005

by Andreas Diamantaras, MSc MedNeuro

This article originally appeared  March 2015, Vol. 08, Issue 01, Humour

Beauty and the Art of Perception

Confucius once said wisely “Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it”. It is interesting how Confucius thought beauty is perceived: with the eyes. What are people's most common answers when asked about what beauty means to them? 

Initially, they think about physical attributes, especially of other humans. This probably is a consequence of the media’s focus on what a perfect body or face should look like. This especially seems to resonate with teenagers. Ideally, the older you get, the more beauty is also seen in subtle and, as many would probably agree, more valuable things of life. Beauty can mean a warm hot chocolate after a full day of skiing, the rewarding view from the top of a mountain after an energy-sapping five-hour hike or merely the joy a mother feels when she sees her child smile at her while going crazy on a trampoline. Beauty is conveyed by all different modes of perception: looking at something, but also touching, tasting or listening to it.

The “Aesthetic System”
In the early phase, research in neuroaesthetics restricted itself to visual perception. For example, scientists tried to assess the physical properties of human faces in order to find the basic neural mechanisms underlying our brain's decision that something is beautiful [1, 2]. Key features are average, symmetry and hormones. The first factor that contributes to beauty is average, because it harbors greater genetic diversity and adaptability to the environment. The second factor is symmetry, because developmental abnormalities are often associated with asymmetry, while symmetry is an indicator for health. And the third factor are hormones, because high level of estrogen and testosterone play important roles in shaping features that people find attractive (when we confine ourselves to heterosexual norms).

Picture: By Hector Salazar

I personally think that these features are what describes attractiveness and are partly evolutionary pre-determinations of how we subconsciously choose our life partners. Anyway, let us have a look what happens in the brain: Attractive faces activate a network of areas that range from the back of our brain to the frontal lobes. An area called fusiform gyrus, which is part of our visual cortex and temporal lobe, as well as the lateral occipital complex in the back of the brain are activated. The fusiform gyrus is especially attuned to process faces, while the occipital complex is especially attuned to process objects. In addition, attractive faces activate parts of our reward and pleasure center located in the front and deep in the brain. These areas are the ventral striatum, the orbifrontal cortex and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex [3].

Beauty is in the brain of the beholder

Since the field of neuroaesthetics is a new but rapidly expanding area, recent studies cover also other art forms, like music and performing art [4], as well as other senses, like smell, taste, hearing and touch. One consistently activated region in response to beautiful stimuli in neuroimaging studies was the anterior insula [5]. This small neural area that sits deep within the lateral sulcus of the cerebral cortex is implicated in a wide range of subjective feelings based on interoception, from cigarette craving to maternal love and, as the term interoception implies, integrates bodily sensations. Since tasting a favorite meal, listening to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 or looking at visually appealing art have all effects on the body, it is not surprising that a region that is meant to give feedback on how much an experience satisfies the physiological needs can also be part of an “aesthetic system” in the brain.

Things that Matter
Interestingly, the sense of beauty seems to require activation in the brain’s reward system. Thus, the brain’s output is a pleased feeling that we sense when we perceive beauty. Sadly, we choose quite often to be blind to beauty because of distraction, worry and daily stress. But it would be very beneficial for each of us to actively predispose ourselves to embrace beauty. Whatever it means for the individual, beauty means happiness at the end. And the good thing is, you decide what’s beautiful, because - if you allow me to adjust the popular saying - beauty is in the brain of the beholder.


[1] Rhodes, Annu. Rev. Psychol., 2006
[2] http://bit.ly/2lYvDJe
[3] Kocsor et. al, Socioaffect Neurosci Psychol, 2013
[4] Cinzia & Vittorio,Curr Opin Neurobiol, 2009
[5] http://bit.ly/2lYvDJe

by Anahita Poshtiban, PhD Student, AG Plested
This article originally appeared March 2018 in Vol 11, Issue 01, "Beauty and the Brain"

Introduction to Neuroaesthetics

Basics of Neuroaesthetics
The concept of aesthetics is about beauty. Neuroaesthetics is a discipline within cognitive neuroscience that is concerned with understanding the biological bases of aesthetic experiences. This means researchers in the field of neuroaethetics want to find out how the experience of art is processed in our brain. The term “neuroaesthetics” was introduced In 1999 by Semir Zeki, bringing together different scientific fields, such as psychology, neuroscience and human evolution [1]. Most of the research done within the past twenty years consists of functional imaging studies of the brain. These studies showed that visual works of art activate specific brain regions that are important for emotions and reward-related processes [2]. This might be an explanation why we can perceive art as beautiful. Neuroaesthetics is a growing discipline and broadens up. New approaches explore specific forms of art, like music, but some researchers are also interested in changes in aesthetic experience in disorders such as dementia [3].

The Association of Neuroaesthetics
The association of neuroaesthetics (AoN) is a platform aiming to cultivate the interdisciplinary efforts in the field of neuroaesthetics and to encourage a cooperation between arts and cognitive sciences. The AoN e.V. is a non-profit organization founded in 2008 in Berlin by neurosurgeon Alexander Abbushi in collaboration with the Charité and a group of leading international neuroscientists and curators from Paris, Munich and London. The association has organized a number of symposia and talk series, inviting both artists and neuroscientists for an interdisciplinary crosstalk. More information can be found on their website: http://aon.neurobureau.org.

http://aon.neurobureau.org/

The Science Part: Semir Zeki
Semir Zeki is Professor of Neuroaesthetics at UCL London and introduced the term “neuroaesthetics” as a neurobiological definition of art. His research focuses on the study of the visual brain, its organization and its functioning in health and in disease [4]. Within the last thirty years, he made many important findings for our understanding of the visual pathway [5,6]. More recently, he showed interest in the impact of visual arts on our brain. As we need our eyes to perceive the visual arts, his own groundwork may lead to a more profound understanding of aesthetic experience. Zeki started to investigate the experience of beauty derived from different emotions, such as sorrow and joy [7].

The Art Part: Mark Stephen Smith
Mark Stephen Smith is Associate Professor at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, but probably better known for his art. He is one example of a growing number of contemporary artists who create a convergence of science and paintings. His works explore fundamental visual analogies between neural functions and self-expression in abstract art. He tries to merge his interest in scientific processes with his dedication to abstract paintings. Smith describes his paintings as a “amalgamation of science, technology and my own hand”. Smith's work has been exhibited at many museums, including the Dallas Museum of Art and Grace Borgnicht Gallery in New York. His recent series of works is called “Quantum States” and is inspired by theoretical physics [8].

Criticism on Neuroaesthetics
Neuroaesthetics emerged to its own research field in the neurosciences. But critics say that the discipline of neuroscience, which looks at events in the brain of individual people and cannot do more than describe and analyze them, may be the wrong empirical science for understanding art [9]. A fundamental question occurs when studying the aesthetic experience of art and how it is processed in our brain. How to define art and beauty? Beauty is not a scientific concept and a universal accepted definition is missing. Aesthetic experience is partly a question of culture and circumstance, and not a fundamental quality of the brain [10]. Researchers in the field of neuroaesthetics try to answer the question of how we perceive art and its beauty. We will see if they overcome the critics and find the explanations.

by Nina Stöberl, MSc Student, MedNeuro
This article originally appeared March 2018 in Vol 11, Issue 01, "Beauty and the Brain"

[1] Bundgaard, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 2015
[2] O’Doherty, Curr Opin Neurobiol, 2014
[3] Silveri et al., J Alzheimers Dis, 2015
[4] http://bit.ly/2oQly4J
[5] Zeki, Nature, 1978
[6] Zeki, Nature, 1980
[7] Ishizu and Zeki, Hum Brain Mapp, 2017
[8] http://bit.ly/2I3fKxj
[9] Conway and Rehding, PLoS Biology, 2013
[10] http://go.nature.com/2Fg4xYs

New Issue Out Now: BEAUTY AND THE BRAIN

The brain is beautiful. From single cells to the sulci and gyri on an MRI, there is a lot to admire. In this issue of the newsletter, we dive into neuroaesthetics, an exciting field studying how beauty is created, understood and valued by the brain. To start things off, why not take a short primer course (page 3), or hear about it straight from the source: scientists working at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (pages 8-11)? We also take a look at whether beauty is only skin-deep literally (pages 15 and 17) and figuratively (pages 13 and 18-19), and how a pretty face (or not…) impacts your chances in life and academia (pages 5 and 12). Do art and beauty always go hand in hand (pages 16-17 and 20)? What if drugs get into the mixture (page 21)?

As part of a recent scientific writing workshop, we are trying to give the newsletter a ‘makeover’. For this purpose we want to hear from YOU, dear readers! See our survey on the next page, give us your best elevator pitch (page 21) or get involved with writing or editing. On this note, a huge shout-out to new author Nina Stöberl, whose story on page 14 and beautiful image of the neuromuscular junction provided our cover art! Most importantly, we want to cover more topics that are directly relevant to our audience, to that end check out our great front-line reporting and critique on Charité PhD life (pages 22-24).

This issue, we are excited to welcome four new members of our proofreading and editorial team: Bettina Schmerl, Aarti Swaminathan, Malika Renz and Zara Khan. Unfortunately, we also have some sad news as well: Helge, one of co-editors-in-chief is about to finish his PhD, and will transition into the exciting and glamorous world of consulting. Thanks for everything Helge, and thanks for all of your hard work for the newsletter! Replacing Helge and joining Constance as the new EIC is Claudia Willmes, an alumna of AG Eickholt and Schmitz and current editor of our blog. We look forward to working with Claudia and expanding our presence both on the web and the written page.
Beautifully yours,

Constance Holman & Helge Hasselmann co-editors-in-chief

Access the full issue here.

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