Certificate in Medical Education 7/21/2017 1 Outline of Lecture - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

7/21/2017 1

Dr Rikaz Sheriff Certificate in Medical Education

Outline of Lecture

• Introduction to Laughter
• Laughter – A Medical Perspective
• Laughter – How your body does it
• Laughter – Research & Practice
• Laughter – The Dark Side

7/21/2017 Dr Rikaz Sheriff - Certificate in Medical Education 2

Introduction to Laughter

• Laughter is an audible expression or the

appearance of happiness, or an inward feeling

• f joy (laughing on the inside).
• It may ensue (as a physiological reaction) from

jokes, tickling or other stimuli. It is in most cases a very pleasant sensation.

• Laughter is found among various animals such

as rats and chimpanzees, as well as in humans.

7/21/2017 3 Dr Rikaz Sheriff - Certificate in Medical Education

Laughter – A Medical Perspective

• It is a part of human behavior regulated by the

brain, helping humans clarify their intentions in social interaction and providing an emotional context to conversations & can be contagious!

• Laughter is anatomically caused by the epiglottis

constricting the larynx.

• The study of humor and laughter, and its

psychological and physiological effects on the human body, is called gelotology.

• Inability to laugh out loud is termed aphonogelia.

7/21/2017 4 Dr Rikaz Sheriff - Certificate in Medical Education

Laughter – How your body does it

• Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
• Limbic System
• American Medical Association

in 1984 …So while purely emotional responses such as laughter are mediated by subcortical structures, especially the hypothalamus, and are stereotyped, the cerebral cortex can modulate

• r

suppress them.

7/21/2017 Dr Rikaz Sheriff - Certificate in Medical Education 5

Laughter – Research & Practice

• A positive link has been found between laughter

and a healthy function of blood vessels with laughter causing such tissues that form using the inner lining of blood vessels, the endothelium, to dilate or expand such to increase blood flow.

• Laughter Yoga is a type of relaxation exercise.
• Professor Norman Cousins - I made the joyous

discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep

7/21/2017 Dr Rikaz Sheriff - Certificate in Medical Education 6

Laughter – The Dark Side

• Death may result from several pathologies

that deviate from benign laughter.

• Infarction of the pons and medulla oblongata

in the brain may cause pathological laughter.

• The incurable neurological disease Kuru is also

known as the laughing sickness due to the pathologic bursts of laughter people would display when afflicted with the disease.

• Excessive laughter can lead to cardiac arrest!

7/21/2017 Dr Rikaz Sheriff - Certificate in Medical Education 7

References

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughter
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventromedial_prefront

al_cortex

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cousins
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_from_laughter
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19251872

7/21/2017 Dr Rikaz Sheriff - Certificate in Medical Education 8

7/21/2017 Dr Rikaz Sheriff - Certificate in Medical Education 9