Genevieve Wanucha, "The Clearest Mirror: The Science of Laughing and Crying"

8/13/2019 Genevieve Wanucha, "The Clearest Mirror: The Science of Laughing and Crying"

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The Clearest Mirror:The Science of Laughing and Crying

by MASACHUSETTS EOF TECHNOLOGY

GenevieveM. Wanucha

B.A. CulturalAnthropologyBard College, 2007 LI R RIES

SUBMITTEDTO THE PROGRAM IN WRITINGAND HUMANISTICSTUDIES INPARTIAL FULFILLMENTOF THE REQUIREMENTS FORTHE DEGREE OF

MASTEROF SCIENCE IN SCIENCE WRITINGAT THE

MASSACHUSETTSINSTITUTEOF TECHNOLOGY

SEPTEMBER2009 ARCHIES

C 2009 Genevieve M. Wanucha. All rights reserved.

The author herebygrants to MIT permissionto reproduceand to distribute publicly paperand electronic

copies of this thesis document in whole orin partin any medium nowknown or hereafter created.

Signature of Author:SJurJuate 2 'ogram in'Science Writing, -IMay 15, 2009

Certifiedby:

\Russ RymerProfessorof Science WritingThesis Advisor

Accepted by:Thomas Levenson

Professorof Science WritingDirector, Graduate Program inScience Writing


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Acknowledgements

All thegratitudegoes to my advisorRuss Rymer. Thankyou, Russ, for tellingmeto write like a figure skater beingjudged on her landings.


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The Clearest Mirror: The Science of Laughing and Crying

By

Genevieve M. Wanucha

Submitted to the Department of Writing and Humanistic Studieson May 15, 2009 in Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science inScience Writing

ABSTRACT:

There are few things as familiarto us as the experience of laughing andcrying.Studying the two emotionalexpressions side to sideis a way to see our species anew. Away of linking whatwe share with other mammalsto that which sets us apart from allother species. Pulling laughingand crying ontocenter stage in all their theatrical glorycreates ascene of which philosophersand anthropologistshave long dreamt:a vision thatis uniquely human.

Laughingand crying are in many ways physiologicaland psychologicalopposites, but these complexbehaviors are not exact reversals of the same bodilyprocesses. Nor have researchers toldme that theyare connectedin any biologicallyrelevant way. But zooming out of narrow scientific definitions, digginginto ourevolutionary history, focusingon the disordersof laughing and crying, looking to thestage where actors and actresses come alive through theirtears, there emergesa puzzle ofpsychology, neuroscience,evolutionarytheory, and neurology slowly snappingtogether.

Thesis Advisor: Russ RymerTitle: Professor of Science Writing


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At 7:15pm,the tiny yellow light bulbs dottingthe ceilingof London's Lyttelton

Theatre dimmed slowly over theaudience. Solid black replaced the waning starlight.

Eight hundred and ninety pairs of eyeballs followedthe same dark trajectory,looking

forward in simultaneous, directedblindness. The play, Tracy Letts's August: Osage

County, had just won five Tony awards andthe 2008 Pulitzer Prizefor best drama. The

three-hour-and-twenty-minute tragicomedyof a Mid-westernfamily's loud dysfunction

spilling addiction,psychological degeneration,incest, suicide, and racism into the theatre

was "the first greatAmerican playof the 21st century," accordingto theatre critics.Now

it had come to theLyttelton,tucked into the northwestwing of the National Theatre.

Anticipation thickenedthe air, asilent, collectivecreation. The man in 6A in the front

row cleared his throat and thumbed the velvet fibers of his armrest as the black slats of

the metal curtainslowly climbedupward in smooth horizontalfolds to expose the interior

of a fully-furnished,three-flooredOklahoma house.

Deep withinthe 2.95-poundrubbery, tightly folded massinside thehead of the

man in 6A, a nerve fiber, or neuron, twitched,zappinga connectednerve fiber, and

passed an electrical signal down 20 nanometersto the next neuron. Actor Paul Vincent

O'Connor sat under the gold glow of the floodlights,swigging whiskeyand drunkenly

quoting T.S Eliot. "My wife takes pills and I drink, O'Connor said nonchalantlyto the

new housekeeper. ...That's the bargainwe've struck."

The orbicular muscles encirclingthe eyeballs of the man in 6A received the

traveling electric pulses and slowly crunched tight beneath wrinkled skin, pullinginward

his cheeks and forehead. Zygomatic muscles,anchored at each cheekbone like leathery


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strings attachedto a marionette,tugged the comers of his mouth backwardsand up.

"Oh God, they're called Native Americansnow, Mom " actress AmyMorton

groaned, scowling.

"Who makes that decision?"

It's what they like to be called "

They're not anymorenative thanme "

"In fact they are."

A sudden cough-like 310-millisecondlong noise exploded fromthe throat of the

man in 6A, extending toa frequency of 10,000 Hertz. Five smaller pulses beginning with

the /h/ sound followed, hoveringaround 6 Hertz each, lasting 1/15 second and repeating

every 1/5 second. The soft tissue lining his upper larynx vibrated120 times persecond.

His heart pumped faster, its rate increasingto 115 beats per minuteas the words' impactsettled. His lungsexpelled air in fast bursts and then violently sucked it back to avoid

suffocation. Oxygenlevel remained constant. Blood vessels relaxed.Some of the one

billion neurons inhis spinal cord slowlycalmed down, softening muscle tone.

Endogenousopioids,the body's natural painkillers, leakedfrom a spindly protrusionof a

neuron to the next, and then trickledinto his bloodstream. His abdominal muscles

clenched in rhythmic spasms. A sudden decrease in theactivityof neurons sending

signals to his tibial nerves, fibroustubes running down theback of the knees to the sole

of the feet,temporarilyparalyzed musclesof both legs.

I think you should try to prepare your wife if you can," the sheriff told Perry.


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"Prepare her?..."

Viewers in the front row seats could almostfeel the spitpopping outof the two

men's mouths.

"What happensto a body," the thespiansheriff told Perry. It's very bloated, an

ugly color. And fishhave eaten the eyes."

"Oh Christ. How does a personjump in the water...and choose not to swim?"

I don't think youdo unless you really mean business."

Perry stood, faceblank, lights dimming,and repeated, "Choose not to swim."

Hit withthe electric signal sentfrom a bulb at the top of his brainstem, the

lacrimal gland of the man in 6A a puffy packetof cells perched on topon his eyeballs in

the bony space behind the eyebrows,began to produce a salty liquid. This warm liquid

flowed into small drains called puncta, permanent0.2 to 0.3 millimeteropenings in thepapilla lacrimalis, the pink triangle of tissue where his morningeye grit collected. A

small amount of this liquid, swimming with globins, glucose, antimicrobialagents, lipids,

endorphins, urea, potassium,manganese and sodium, passed throughthe puncta into

another bundleof tissues, the lacrimalsac, then pushed pasta membranousflap, the

Valve of Hasner. Tiny tubuloalveolarglands secreted streams of phlegm. The thick

solutionemptied into the nasal passages. The immune enzyme lysozymein this liquid

killed a few of the Streptococcus bacteria swarming alongthe pseudo stratified columnar

epithelia liningthe inside of his nostrils. He reached fora tissue. The rest of the fluid

dripping fromthe top of the eye quickly expandedin volume as he continued to watch the


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expressionon Perry's face, and overwhelmedthe tiny pink puncta,which couldonly

drain at the rate of a micro-literand a half per minute. The trembling ledgesof eyelids

kicked overa drop. He blinked and swallowed. From where I sat in seat 7A, I saw him

press a fingerhard to the bridge of his nose, andbegin to cry.

It's really spectacularwhen you think about it," says William Frey II, biochemistand

neuroscientistat the University of Minnesota."There is this one species who has the

ability to shed emotional tears." Spectacularand, as Frey would admit, mysterious.

Crying,and its psychological counterpart, laughter,are core human attributes, essential

markersof our species.They have been the subject of explorationand exploitationfor as

long as humanshave expressed feelingsto one another, and as long as art has wrung

emotion out of human drama. But for all of that, they are littleunderstood,one

ofthe

darker behavioralmysteries lurkingin the lightof everyday experience. Arthur Koestler

puzzles in the Act of Creation, "What is the survivalvalue of the involuntary,

simultaneous contractionof fifteen facial muscles associatedwith certain noises, which

are often irrepressible?"Indeed, how wouldwe explain, to any visiting creature

unfamiliar withour species, the water drippingfrom eyeballs,the faces contortedinto

spasms and creases, thegarbled vocal expulsions, the secretionsdrippingunwanted from

the nose, theconvulsing rib cages-all inducedby no discernablephysical stimulus?

And how to explain whyhumans wouldpay exorbitantLondontheatre fees to have these

involuntaryreactions voluntarilyinduced?


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Not surprisingly,consideringthe depth of the mystery, scientistsare paying more

and more attention to the phenomenaof crying or laughing,trying to tease out the

mechanismsbehind the complexorchestrationof muscular, nervous,endocrine,

respiratory, thermoregulatory,and cardiovascularsystems. Theyare asking: why do we

do this at all? "There are such enormous claims that crying is healthy andimportantfor

making us human. So, for me those are more than sufficient reasonsto learn more," says

Ad Vingerhoets,professor of clinicalhealth psychologyat Tilburg University in the

Netherlands. Psychologistslike Vingerhoets focus on how emotional expression

arbitrates the relationshipsof infants and parents, of enemies andlovers. Numerous other

fields are taking stabs at the mystery as well. The nature of their endeavors impartsa hint

of how many dimensionsthe prism of laughing and cryinghas.

Evolutionary biologists and anthropologistshave traced the auditory and visual

signals backto the pre-dawn of Homo sapien culture and nascentsocial communication.

Researchersare measuring the brain wavesof adults as they listento infant vocalizations

to determine whetherthe male and female brain process theseloaded sounds differently.

Neurologistsare investigating diseasesthat can reveal past secrets about howemotion

relates to physical laughs and cries. And mostrecently, neuroscientistshave begun to

employ fMRI brain scanning technologiesto unravel theneural pathways of emotion.

Their findingshave in some ways only deepened our appreciationof the everyday

enigma. In 1981, Frey discoveredthe unique chemical compositionof emotionaltears; he

now says that his effortto investigatecrying endedup producingfar morequestionsthan

it answered.In part this is because of the ineffable natureof emotional response; even


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delineatingits boundariescan be daunting."When exactly does someone start crying?"

Vingerhoets asks. "And what's even more difficult-when do they stop crying? It's

nearly impossible to establishthe onset and end of crying,and that makes itvery

complicatedto decide the relationshipbetweenwhat's going on in the brain and the tear

glands."

The questions get deeper still as scientific investigationmoves from individual

experienceto nonlinguisticsocial exchange: What's going on betweengroups of people

caughtup in these emotionalexpressions? We share tears at a funeral andforge

friendshipsthrough giggles in the back of a classroom. We feel a prick of empathy in our

guts when we watch someone cry, whether it be someone weknow, or an actor on a stage

or televisionscreen. Do laughing andcrying necessarily correspondto an honest emotion

at all, as Shakespeare and some cognitive psychologistsdoubt? Whatcan neurological

disordersreveal about the complicated architectureof emotional signalingbetween

people?

And within thatneural architecture, what ultimatelyis the relationshipbetween

these two extreme behaviors?Why should bothjoy and sorrow provoketears? Crying

can so easily slip intolaughter. We "hold" back laughterand "hold" backtears. We

"burst" into both laughterand sobs, which both producesimilar facial expressions. So

why do a sob and a guffaw so often sound the same,heard from a room away? And how

is it that childrenwill snap from crying to laughing in one blessed instant? Laughingand

crying may be estranged relatives,like theweeping angel andcackling devil, but they're

also, some say, conjoinedtwins. "At some pointthey cross over," says Randolph


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Cornelius,professor of psychology,Americanculture, and cognitivescience at Vassar

College. There's a well-knownobservationthat we can laugh ourselvesinto tears or vice

versa. So the rapid inhalationand expirationthat goes on with bothlaughing and crying

appear to be similar. There are all sortsof complex intersectionsthere thatneed to be

explored."

Laughingand crying are in many ways physiologicaland psychological

opposites,but thesecomplex behaviorsare not exact reversals of the same bodily

processes. Nor have researcherstold me that they are connectedin any biologically

relevantway. But zooming outof narrow scientific definitions,digging into our

evolutionaryhistory, focusingon the disordersof laughing and crying, looking tothe

stage where actors and actresses come alivethrough their tears,there emergesa puzzle of

psychology,neuroscience,evolutionarytheory, and neurology slowly snapping together.

Koestler realizes that "The creativeact is not an act of creation inthe sense of the Old

Testament. It does not create something out of nothing; it uncovers,selects, re-shuffles,

combines, synthesisesalready existing facts, ideas,faculties, skills. The more familiar

the parts, the more striking thenew whole." There are few thingsas familiar to us as the

experienceof laughing and crying. Studyingthe two emotionalexpressionsside to side

is a way to see our species anew. A way of linking what we share with other mammalsto

that which sets us apart from all other species. Pulling laughingand cryingonto center

stage in all their theatrical glory creates ascene of which philosophersand

anthropologistshave long dreamt: a vision that is uniquely human.


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In 1931, as archaeologistClaude A. Schaeffer wasexcavating the ancient port city of

Ugarit on the north coast of Syria, he uncovereda series of broken clay tablets.

Inscribed in strange symbols on the14 h century BC clay was apoem, the first written

recordof tears. One fragmented bitof the Ras Shamra tex ts tells thestory of the virgin

goddessAnat. Distraughtat her brotherBa'al's death, she "continued sating herself with

weeping, to drink tears like wine."

Greek physiciansof the 4 th century BC, who placed ultimate importanceon

purging the human body of pathogens,thought tears were the brain's way of eliminating

cerebral toxins. These doctorshad adoptedan AncientEgyptian physiologicalidea that

sickness sprang from the build-up of bile and phlegm obstructingblood and air from

nourishing thebrain. Tears were "excesshumors" expelled froman overheated and

soggy cerebrum. The Hippocratic notion that tearswere part of physiological programof

bodily catharsis traveled onto Europe,where it showedup in writingsof Renaissance

doctors like Britishphysician Timothy Bright,who in 1586 called tears"the

excrementitious humiditieof the brayne." TheFrench physician LaurentJoubert

explained, "Whenthe brain is compressed, it ejects great quantitiesof tears." Such

European doctors acknowledgedthe commonappearance of tears withextreme emotion,

Joubert concluding that "itis necessaryto know that one weeps of sadness when

suffering presses the eyes and theadjacent areas with constraint, squeezing outtheir

humidity. Joy, on the other hand, dilatesand opens the pores, from which the humorsare

able to flow and fall in the form of tears." Tears werebrain juice, cranial sweat, up until


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the seventeenthcentury.

Tracing the history of laughter is chasing the ephemeral,akin to searching for the

breath expelled withthe first joke thousandsof years ago. Our world came intobeing

with a particularlaugh, according to an ancientpapyrus dating back to around the 3 rd

century BC. The supreme,unnamed EgyptianCreator laughed, in seven glorious bursts,

the light, the oceans,mind, andsoul into physical being. The idea that laughter is a godly

possession,bestowedwith greatcreative power, is a commontheme in many ancient

religious texts. Too much laughteris dangerous, a wicked, destabilizingforce impinging

on the duties of gods. The 16 th century Puritan dictumon the activity, a ban on laughter

and smilingpunishedby imprisonment,was far preceded by Plato, whorecommended

any mention of laughinggods or heroes be deleted from literature. Theater, he felt,

should be tightly controlled,as laughter so aroused and freed the spirit that his subjects

would riot. He would have surelybeen horrifiedat psychoanalystSigmundFreud's

influentialtheory that laughterat humor was repressed sexual energyand aggressive

tension, releasedwhen a joke so mildly crossesthe boundaryof propriety, that the relief

generatedfrom the punch line cracks open the river of dammedup dark energies.

Think of how validatedyou felt the last timesomeone laughed knowingly,or how

disheartenedyou felt when your teacher laugheddismissively. Think of how much

authority PresidentBarack Obama garners when he succeeds in amusing the press corp.

Laughter holdspower, the power to create and destroy,affirm and delegitimize.

The tablet dug up from Ugarit,buried underthe debris of a ruinous, final

earthquake, tells of a time elaboratedin the Hebrew Bible.Recorded thereis an account

.


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of a pre-HebrewCanaan ritual practiced around the 14th century BC,a springtime ritual

in which an entire tribe traveledto the desert and commencedan emotional ritual by

moaningand crying in synchrony. Overthe courseof several days, the group slipped

from cryingto wailing, to hysteriaand laughterdispersed into giggles and a return to

daily life. Gliding across the emotionalspectrum was the point at which social life began

for these ancients. Laughterbegins relationships,just as crying begins life. After all, we

all enter this worldcrying.

Even if the cold, new air, and the slimyfeel of blue plastic-glovedhands doesn't

cause a cry to emerge from the infant larynx,the lives of the new parentswill soon move

to a grating soundtrack.The infant,who is rapidly assimilating information abouthis

world as blossomingneurons rapidly forge connections and memories, soonlearns that

crying is useful. "When they're distressed or aroused,crying is the vocalizationthey can

easily produce and can get them what theyneed in most circumstances. It's a really good

way to see how sounds induce feelings inothers. People want to turn the crying off,

says Jo-Anne Bachorowski,Associate Professorof Psychologyat Vanderbilt University,

who studiesemotional vocalizations.Crying is a powerful infanttool to meld and shape

a mother's actions and state of mind. But behindthese liquid demandsand quick

responses,an ancientbiologicaltransformationis occurring: thebond. Examples of

which,as it turns out,are not hardto find.

I had a massivepanic attack the other day."

"Oh?" My eyes widened,brows raised.


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"It started suddenly. Andshe was right there," my friend said, gesturing to the

front seat. I just couldn't stop crying, but I was afraid it would scare her to see me cry,

so I hid my face in myhands."

Meghan' is a young mother, living inRed Hook,New York on the Bard College

campus where her partner teaches music.Her baby daughter Emma nappedin the car

seat behind us. A week ago, shehad been sitting up here in the front.

"And somethingvery strangehappened-Emma interpretedmy sound and actions

as laughing. She thought I was just laughing reallyhard and giggled loudlyin response.

She thought it was so funny that I was laughing. Anyway,she started to tear my hands

away from my face, to try and open my closed hands like she would normallydo when

we play," Meghan said, mimickingthe open-closehand movements."At that momentI

began to laugh whileI was crying because I was touched at her utterinnocence and

assumptionof my emotionalnature. I began to cry harder, alternatingbetweencrying

and laughing becauseI was so touched," she said.

In the 1950's, when attachmenttheory explodedin the field of psychology,the

developmentof this theory pushedinfant act of crying front and center. British

psychiatristJohn Bowlby and socialpsychologistsMany Ainsworthand Silvia Bell

developed thistheory, which positedthat infant cryingand sucklingtriggered the crucial

attentionsof their caretakers and cementedthe bond between parentand child. Seriously

challengedwas the Freudianpsychoanalytic viewthat the bond existedprimarily for the

baby's nutrition and oralgratification. To Bowlby, the Freudian view did notexplain

1 Name has been changed for privacy


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why a mother figure was necessary. Bowlbyand his colleagues turnedto ethology, the

study of animal behavior,to solve this theoretical dilemma.

The work of American socialpsychologist Harry Harlow on maternaldeprivation

in rhesus monkeysinterested Bowlby. Harlowhad discoveredthat the isolatedbut well-

fed baby rhesus monkeys cravedthe attention of and contact witha maternal figure, even

if that were only a cloth motherpuppet. Maternal deprivationcaused permanent

neurologicaldamage in these monkeys. Bowlbyand his colleagues drew heavilyon such

researchto conclude the instinctualresponses that develop in the first half year of life,

suckling,cuddling,clinging, crying, laughing, and smiling,were part of an evolutionary

heritage, in which strong mother-infant bonds promotedspecies survival. Suddenly,

infant vocalizationswere not just a signal from a helpless or spoiled infant,but a

preprogrammed, biologically based repertoireof attachment behaviors.

It wasn't until a neuroscientistattempted to explain this attachmenttheory

throughbrain anatomy thatthe mysteries of laughing and crying inched further outof the

dark.

"Walking in a cathedral" is how the behavioral neuroscientistPaul D. MacLean

often describedthe arches and vaults of brain tissuehe saw through the microscope. But

the cell-levelconstituents and molecular interactionsof this elaboratestructure, in his

opinion, were exclusivelythe purview of neuroscientistsattemptingto study emotion.

They were missing the forest for the moleculartrees. His colleague,psychologistKelly

Lambert of Randolph-MaconCollege recalls that MacLeanwas a "big-picture"

neuroscientistwho proposed thatwithout bringingan evolutionary perspectiveinto


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affective neuroscience,the real answers as to how the brain circuits control behavior

would be abandoned fora narrow biochemicalvision. MacLean surroundedhimself with

peacocks, squirrelmonkeys, rats,hamsters, anolislizards, komododragons, andtheir

respectivebrains, and in 1952, after peeling through layer afterliteral layerof cerebral

matter, he named whathe found the "triune brain."

This theory of the 'triune brain', an idea thatsome researchers see as outdatedand

simplistic, lies behind many of the tenets of neuropsychiatryand childdevelopment

psychology. 'Triune' refers toMacLean's contention, after painstakingobservationof

reptilian,mammalian,and human brains, that the humanbrain containsthe markers of its

evolutionand is composedof three brains. In his model,our cranial trinity is made up of

interconnectedstructures: theprotoreptilian complex(controlling automatic motorand

behavioral routines), the paleomammalian formation(he named this thelimbic system,or

the program of emotions), andthe mammalian formation (recently evolved cognitive

functions),all layered like tree rings betraying the process of millionsof years of

evolution. The limbic lobe of the mammalian braincontains the emotional instructions

crucial to mammal life, such as inborn nurturing behaviorslike play and separationcries.

"The history of the evolutionof the limbic systemis the history of the evolutionof

mammals, while the history of the evolutionof mammals is the history of the evolution of

the family," he writes. Our brains, he suggested, containsspecific wiring for maternal-

infant relations.

Emotions and their expression are "inherited toolsfor livingfrom our ancestral

past," saysneuroscientistJaak Pankseppat WashingtonState University, agreeing with

MacLean's idea. Pankseppmakes this "big-picture"affective neurosciencehis life's

, ,, .,


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work. Like MacLean,he thinks that studying the animal equivalentof emotionwill

reveal volumes abouthow our minds work,because of the shared ancientneural circuits.

"We know fromhuman workthat the basic circuitry for laughterand crying is well

represented in very primitivebrainstem regions-brain areas that are quite homologous

in all mammals. Such social urges werebuilt into the brainlong before humans, even

though they obviouslytake unique species-typicalexpressionsin humans, as they do in

every species,"he explains. His work with rats has, like MacLean's, underminedthe

traditionalassumptionof behavioralneurosciencethat emotionalprocessesand

vocalizationswere the prized possessionof humansalone.

In the early 1990s, heand his colleagues hookedup ultrasonic recording

equipmentand listenedwhile juvenile rats engagedin rough-and- tumble play.They

heard a cacophony of 50 kHz ultrasonic"chirping" type vocalizations.These

rambunctiousrodentsalso chirped in anticipationof play. It wasn't until years laterthat

Panksepp made the connection betweenthese chirpsand human laughter. Having

completeda study in which he concluded that laughter was an integral part of human

children's physical play, he suddenly decidedto look to rats to confirm a rising suspicion.

Walking into his lab the morning afterthis realization,he approachedhis undergraduate

assistant. "Come tickle some rats withme," he remembers saying.

And so they "tickled" the rats. Or, inscientific language, theyengaged in

"HeterospecificHand Play." They stucktheir fingers inthe cage, andtickled the young

rats on the nape of their necks, wherethey usually targettheir own playgrabs. The rats

chirped wildly. When the rat's necks were anesthetized,the tickling ceasedto cause

chirping. He thinks that these delighted rodentchirpings, as do tickled chimpanzee


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panting,have somekind of ancestral relationshipto the laughterof human childplay.

Thoughhuman laughteris hardly identical to rat vocalizations,the reward systemsand

the purpose of the vocalizationsseem to have similar evolutionaryroots.

Around the same time, MacLeanexpounded histheory thatthe mammal limbic

system functionedto secure relationshipsthrough animal cries and calls, and that those

sounds were the evolutionaryprecursorsto human laughingand crying. In 1990, he

publishedhis hypothesisin The Triune Brain in Evolution that laughingand cryingwere

maternal-infantattachmentbehaviors forged deep inthe ancientbrain stem and limbic

lobe. These noises and correspondingnurturing and social behaviors,he wrote, made

possiblegroup communicationand family relations. Long-termsocial contracts, in turn,

paved the way for the developmentof empathy and a moral conscience. The capacity for

art and ritual appeared soon after, judging from one of the oldest known cave paintings,

huntedanimals etched in the Ardeche River valley Chauvetcavern in southwestern

France 32,410 (give or take 720) years ago. Abbe Breuil, the pioneer interpreterof

Palaeolithicart, first proposedthis connectionbetweendrawn animals andhunting rituals

in the early 1900s.

MacLean dwelled on theevolutionary originsof laughing and crying, imagining

their sounds traveling throughthe smoking fire pits illuminatingthe Palaeolithiccavern

walls. "As fora connection betweenlaughterand smoke andtears," he wrote, "one

might suggest that guffawing amusementarounda hearth fire in a cave might be

conducive to increased smoke inhalationand an aggravationof tearing." Thisconjecture

has been criticizedas fanciful Lamarckianevolutionarytheory-the idea that certain

.


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individualscan developtraits to adapt to an environmentand pass thosetraits directly to

their offspring-and incompatiblewith Darwin's theory of natural section. Though

MacLean's scenario is creative, he did reason withDarwinian logicthat a mutation

favoring tear productionin the face of campfire smoke would have bestowedthe

evolutionaryadvantageof self-healingeyes to creaturesplaying with the undiscovered

dangers of the life promotingcrackling flames.

The field of zoology contributedanother ideato this evolutionaryconnectionof

human laughingand crying. ZoologistDesmond Morris, in his 1967 book The Naked

Ape, reasons that because humansare born twelve months earlierthan expectedfor a

primate brainof our size, we come into the world as especiallyhelpless creatures. For

months, human babies dependsolely on adults forfood, navigation,and care. So, the

infant capacitiesto cry, scream, and gurgle serveas importanttools to secure this parent-

infant relationshipof survival. Morris reasoned millionsof years of parentingpractice

converted cryinginto laughter. He imaginedthis scene of emotional transitionlike this:

a prehistoric infantnestled in his mother's arms is suddenly startledby a loud noise. The

immediate reaction is to cry in distress, but just as fast, the youngster hearshis mother's

voice andrealizes thathe is safe. The danger can be ignored. "The outcome of this,"

Morris writes, "is that the child gives a response that is half crying reactionand half

parental-recognitiongurgle.... It is as though the longwail of the crying infant has

become segmented,chopped up into little pieces, and at the same time has grown

smootherand lower."

Recent neuroscientificresearch involvinghuman mothers, fathers, babies, laughing,


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and crying offers contemporary evidenceof this innate connectionbetween laughingand

crying and mothers and babies. In 2004, behavioralneuroscientistHenning Scheich,

director of the Leibniz Institute for NeurobiologyCenter for Learning andMemory

Research in Magdeburg,Germany, ran a study inwhich he and his colleagueslugged

recordingequipmentto the homes of new parents. They wanted to collect the data in the

most natural of settings.They recorded hours upon hours of infant laughing and crying,

later combing throughthe data and isolating samples.They then assemblednine women

and nine men,all who had never beenparents, and exposed themto the sounds of infant

laughing andcrying and, as a control,time-reversed laughing andcrying. They foundthat

the authentic infantlaughingand crying,more than adult laughingand crying, strongly

activatedthe adults' amygdala,a two-prongedalmond shaped brain area devoted to

emotional processingand attention to the environment (partof MacLean's limbic lobe).

But most interesting,said Scheich, is that the sounds activatedwomen's amygdalamany

times morethan they did the men's. "This points to the fact that laughingand crying are

inborn components"he said. Ourbrains have been engineered to respond to emotion.

In 2003, a group out of the University of Basel, Switzerland performeda

similar experimentfor a slightly differentpurpose. They, too, analyzedthe brains of

adults as they listenedto tape recordingsof infant laughingand crying. And women,not

men, no matter their parental status,showeda decrease in the activityof a brain area in

the prefrontal cortexcalled theanterior cingulate,a sort of relay station integrating

emotionaland cognitive processes,as well as social decision-making. A decrease in this

area, suggestsErich Seifritz, Professorof Psychiatryand Director of the Clinicfor


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Affective Disorders and General Psychiatry at the University of Zurich in Switzerland,

reveals that an infant's call may momentarily disable thisarea, suppressing less relevant

sensory information,and leaving the mother's brain uninterruptedaccess to her infant's

yammering. These data hint that women,mothers or not, inherit brains wiredto respond

emotionallyto infant cries, just as MacLean hadthought. It's as thoughinfant laughing

and crying activate privateinfant communication linesin the femalebrain.

The University of Basel researchers foundthat other brainareas responded

differently in parents and non-parents,independentof

the listeners' gender. Inotherwords, a mother or father hears more of an emotional tugin a cry than does a non-parent.

Seifritz thinks these automatic parent brain responsesto infant crying revealsthat audio

emotional signals are adaptivebehaviors. "Giving highest attentionto a crying baby is an

adaptive advantagebecause this helps support survivalof the offspring," he said. Though

everyone's brain registersa baby's vocalizations,the parent brainhas unique activation

patterns. Naturehas placed these caregivers,it seems, at themercy of a baby's cry.

Neuroscientificstudies likethese acoustic analyses have bolstered evolutionary

theories thatthe originsof laughing and crying are deeply entwined withthe roles and

rigors of ancient family matters. Clearly, these auditory and visualsocial cues arebuilt

into thehuman brainsat a mechanistic, biologicallevel. But the quest to more deeply

understand these communication signalshas led researchers on ventures requiring

electrical probes, rodent tickling,even medical therapies-and ultimately, the insightsof

artistic expression.


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Her glassy eyes wobbledto the right, tracking the three travelingfingers. The hand

stopped and then rose up towards the ceiling. Auburn hair, splayedwith static charge,

fell back as her eyes resumed the task. With her glassesremoved, her face was naked,

surprised.

"Try and keep your headstill," a softvoice murmured. "Just followmy fingers

with your eyes." Shecouldn't. At each attemptedascent, hereyes fell to center, unable

to find visual anchor.

"How are you doing with your MS?"

It's fine," thewoman voiced overthe course of eight seconds,her eyes calm and

accepting. I'm de-al-ingwith i-t." An array of wrinkles, right then, grew fromher

crunched eyelids. Rivulets of tears washed into the creases, bathing her cheeks with a

saran wrapcoating. Don't mi-nd me," she blurted.

Then, the doctor's voice: "Give me a big laugh."

Like a knee jerking at the hammer's tap, herjaw droppedto send an attack of

laughter into the boxy beige examinationroom at the Stanford UniversityNeurology

Clinic.

Dr. Josef Parvizi was unfazed. He sat on a short stool, his scarlet tiedangling as

he leaned into herwheelchair, softly grasping hershoulder andstroking her hand. At his

slightprovocation,she would immediatelychange from crying tearfullyto laughing

. _ _ _ . .. _ _


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strongly. It wasas if there was an invisible, maniacalpuppeteerbehind her. Parvizitold

the woman that she was doing fine in a voice tinged withan unplaceableaccent. "Dr.

Gross is a world expertin this kind of thing," Parviziassured her, gesturing to a tall

blonde man, psychophysiologistDr. James Grossof StanfordUniversity, who leaned in

from fourfeet over. He's here to give some insight." She nodded vigorously.

Dr. Parvizi, a neurologist andprofessor of neurologicalsciences at the Stanford

Medical School, hasa calm oval face and a frequently dawningsmile. He flies down the

narrow sea-green corridors of the busy Neurology Clinic, perpetuallyin that blood

churning space between a walk and a run. I had to break into a trot to stay at his heels.

He works in a small,warm office smelling of the tart sliced driedpersimmons and sour

black cherries onhis desk. Out of the cornerof his eye, he can see a $95,000 stack of

Tucker Davis Technologiesequipment,whose dialsand knobs measurethe brain waves

of his epilepsypatients 30,000 times per secondto detect minuteelectrical abnormalities

buzzing deep in thebrain. The walls are tiled with framed neurologydegrees, completed

residencies,awards. An espresso machinesits next to his keyboard. Many nightshe is in

the office past eight. If he keeps his door opena crack, heads will constantly emerge

from the hall,students to show himtheir work, otherdoctors reportinga plaque on a

patient's brain or informinghim of a scheduled meeting. Josef is a wonderfuldoctor.

He develops really creative solutionsto patients' complexproblems,"Gross tells me

later, referring to Parvizi's current work.

Parvizi is planning a systematic study on the rare disordercalled pathological

laughing and crying. PLC is not one disorder onits own, but the result of a lesion or


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"Uh, huh."

Her sister mentionedthe trouble Leilawas having withthe aides who dressed her.

Leila's oddly-timedcrying started again,as though a memory triggered the corresponding

emotional reactionthat wouldnormally be kept inside, like a filter betweenprivate

thoughtand public expressionwas missing. Parvizi and Gross shot each other a private,

knowingglance.

For the past twelve years, Leila,51, has livedwith a progressing case of multiple

sclerosis, a disorder in which the immune system attackscells of the central nervous

system, slowly nibblingaway at the ability of brain and spinal cord to send signals and

coordinate musclemovementsand cognition. Her MS has taken away herability to walk

and has obstructeda waterfall of words behind an uncooperativetongue. Her usual

physical and cognitive symptomshave recently eaten into her emotionallife, affecting

her ability to control the expression of sadness, anger, and frustration. Her doctor

referredher to Parvizi soon after he observedan abnormal increasein crying spells anda

few instancesof seemingly out-of-placelaughter. If Parvizi and GrossdiagnosePLC

today, she could become partof a studynow in the works.

Parvizi asked her to once again remove her glassesand held up her arm for a few

seconds. Herarm shivered back and forthlike a brokencompass. The doctors lookedat

each other and spoke in their fastabbreviations. "Cerebellar ataxia " Parvizi mouthed to

Gross. Cerebellarataxia, a hallmark signof multiple sclerosis,is the lossof muscle

coordination. The cerebellum,a fist-sized 1/3-pound chunk layeredwith 50 of all the

2 Name of patient has been changed for privacy

- - -- - - . - ---- - .-- --- .


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neurons is the brain, is squeezed between the bottom of the brain and the topof the spinal

cord. It usuallycontrols fine-tuned managementof moment-to-momentactions. When

compromisedby the lackof communicationfrom the brain andthe spinal cord, the

cerebellum,or "miniature brain" in Latin, can't relay proper instructionsto the brain

stem, the part of the brain thatexecutesmany prepackagedmuscle movements,like the

diaphragmand facial contractionsof laughing and crying.

Recognitionflashed in Parvizi's eyes as he watched Leila's uncontrolled

movements. He recognizedthis as cerebellardysfunctionbecause one of his past major

findingssuggested that this "mini-brain"is a leading antagonistin the wrenching drama

of PLC. A decade ago,Parvizi wasa graduate studentat University of Iowa College of

Medicine. He and his colleagues challengedthe old neurological explanationfor this rare

disorder. This oldexplanation, thatpathological laughingand crying was caused by

damage to parts of the brain that voluntarily controlled emotionalexpression,dates back

to 1924, when the anatomicaland neurological datathat doctors hadto work with was

extremely limited. Disruptionof voluntary pathways couldnot explain why PLC patients

often have no problem performingvoluntary muscle movements, even mimic laughing

and crying. At the same time, the patientswould start laughing at a dime dropping.

Parvizi and histeam knewthat there had to be something goingon with the involuntary

behavior patterns.

They studieda middle-aged landscaperwho had suffereda stroke theyear before.

Right afterhis stroke, C.B. had started breakinginto uncontrollable episodesof laughing

and crying. A CAT scan revealed some dead tissue on his cerebellum.When the Iowa

- ---- - -


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team examined him,C.B. was still regularly experiencing these episodes.He would cry

in response to a joke and laugh aftera frustratingtest. So, Parvizi and others scanned the

patient again with Magnetic ResonanceImaging to secure a more revealingimage of the

brain. Damageto his cerebellumand brain stem appearedas black spotson the scan.

The cause of C.B.'s PLC had something to do with a broken interplaybetween these

brain regions.

A new schema of laughing and crying was gleaned,in part, from this study.

Parvizi says that the brain canbe seen as a complex loopingnetworkmade up of nodes

and sitesof action that are in constant communication.There are induction sites, such as

the amygdala or ventralstriatum, which pair a stimulus withan emotion. "Youcan think

of an induction site like aswitchboard deciding whenA comes,what wouldbe the best

deal for B," explains Parvizi. "Likehow, for most people,snakes trigger a sense of fear."

Effector sites, likeparts of the brain stem,execute the actualphysical expressionof that

emotion. "Effectorsites are the warehouses producingthe actual act of laughing or

crying: movingthe facial muscles up, movingyour lips, producing lacrimation,or some

pharyngeal contractions,"he says. The PLC studyshowed that thesesites didnot operate

in a linear step-by-stepfashion; there was another site interceptingthese signals, making

sure that all is well. In C.B's brain, it was broken.

The cerebellum, Parviziand his colleagues suggest, normally makessure ourbehavior plays appropriately inour social surroundings, deploying our lifetimeof

memories and learned social cues. Making sure that whatwould have been a shriek of

laughter in the caf6 is a soft giggle in a classroom is the cerebellum's constant chore. But

_


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when thisdisciplinarianis ailing, as in some cases of PLC, behaviorscan swing wild.

Here's one example," saysParvizi. Norm ally, somebodycalls the switchboardand

says their name is Anderson andthe switchboard knowsthat when Andersoncalls it has

to connect Anderson to Mrs. Anderson. Now in PLC, the switchboard signalsto Mrs.

Anderson,but unfortunately,the signal goesto Mrs. Jackson's room. So you're not

supposed to laugh there, but you start laughingbecause thereis this short fusing or

disconnect. That switchboard glitchis happening,we think, between the inductor sites

and the cerebellum."

The evaluation in the StanfordNeurologyClinic ended. Diagnosis: Pathological

Laughing and Crying because of Multiple Sclerosis.Leila was wheeledout witha

prescriptionfor a medication thatwill raise herbrain's emotionalthreshold and hopefully

dampen her haphazard emotionaloutbursts. Parvizi and Gross leaned in on their stools,

looking at each other across the spacewhere thepatient and wheelchairsat seconds ago.

I feel for her sister, wow," sighed Gross.

"Yeah," agreed Parvizi, observinghow the problemafflicted the family member

more than the patients themselves."She denied many times thatshe was sad or

depressed; she actually didn't think the outbursts were a big deal. Where as you can see

on the sisters face-she's, like, tortured anytimeshe sees any of this." Gross nodded.

She's a severe case, severe in every sense."

"And thisis something we see over andover-, Parvizi said, turning to me.

"These patients have no problem withvoluntary controlof facial muscles. So the


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problem isn't a lack of voluntarism. It's something much more."

"Yes. When you get these reportsof PLC, its not one thing is it?" Gross

remarked.

Not all patients with PLC experience the same thing, because PLCis not a disease

in itself, but rathera spectrumof symptomsstemming from many possible primary

disordersor accidents. Parvizi thinks that the only way to come upwith better treatments

and a morethoroughunderstandingis to invent a completely newdiagnostic system.He

thinks that this study will be able toestablish normsfor these evaluations,a system for

recording the patients' self-reports and those of their observers. He will interview more

patients to assess their eligibility. He has begun video recording interviewsessionsand

studying the tapes afterwards. "PLC is so hard to studybecause the symptoms are so

fleeting. They are just lost to usforever if they aren't recorded." Thevideos of patients

having laughing andcrying attacksduring seizures or other neurologicaldisorderhave

become vital to his planning. Theyallow himto catch the subtleties inthe patient's

emotion and musclecontrol that can easilybe forgottenafter the patient leaves the room.

Years of studyinglaughing and crying and the momentsour emotional reactions

become derailed hasled him to a knowledge that emotionsare not consciouslycontrolled

cognitive tools,but rather spontaneousreactions thatrely on other built-in mechanismsto

be properly regulated and projected into the world. "The lesson fromthis is a

philosophicaland ethical one," Parvizi says. It's an old notionthat we regulate our

behavior througha very consciousprocess, throughan hierarchical topdown process-

'we shall do what is right.' By bringing in the cerebellum,what we see is that we don't


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have as much consciouscontrol over behaviorsas we think." We do not have ultimate

control over how we act. Rather, we dependon the proper functioningof our involuntary

brain systems so that we can make decisions,choose actions, and hideour feelings.

A nurse pokedher head in the room. The doctors hadrun over their scheduled

time.

"There are two more waiting to be seen," Parvizi said. "By then we'll have IRB

approval for diary charting."

"Then we'll think aboutdrafting... Parvizi and Grosswere checking their

watches, about to get up.

"You have a lovely manner, I should say, always, with patientsand their

families," Gross said.

"Ha That's why I like to be with you,James, you know? We always give each

other compliments " The sound of both men's laughter cooled theair.

And then there are individuals who, unlike thosepatients withPLC, are so in control of

emotional expression that they can willingly propel their bodiesinto the involuntary

displaysof laughing and crying. Intimateunderstandingof their own emotional

physiologyallows them trigger or squelchemotionalphenomena. As Hamletpuzzled,

"Is it not monstrous thatthis player here, but in a fiction,in a dream of passion,could


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force his soul so to his own conceit, that from her workingall his visage waned, tearsin

his eyes, distraction inhis aspect, a broken voice,and his wholeform suiting withforms

to his own conceit?" Theexhibitionof profound, genuinely tearful emotion whenone

really has no personal reasonto feel it is the prerogativeof the performer, orthe "player"

in Shakespeare'sday. The talented performer spends hours refiningand practicingthe

ability to laugh and cry ina matter of seconds infront of a sea of onlookers. For the

actress, mastering the emotional is artistry; for theneuroscientist it is elusive science.

Antonio Damasio, neuroscientistat the Universityof Californiaat Santa Barbara

and Josef Parvizi's former professor,has long been determinedto understand the

neurobiologyof emotion. He investigateshow circumstancestrigger emotions and how

emotions then become feelings, "aprivileged viewinto mind and body," as he calls it.

He authors today's leading theory of emotion, which buildson those of the giants before

him, such as Carl Lange and William James, thescholars who first notedthat bodily

phenomenacame before the feelingof sadness or happiness,that feelingswere

perceptionsof our body state. "Commonsense says," James hypothesizedin the 1890s,

"we lose our fortune,are sorry and weep; we meet a bear, are frightenedand run his

order of sequence is incorrect he more rational statementis that we feel sorry because

we cry, angry becausewe strike, afraidbecause we tremble." Youdo not cry because

you are sad, but youfeel sad because you are crying. Of course, as Damasio's more

sophisticatedresearch methodshave revealed, itis a bit more complicatedthan that.

To distinguish between human emotionand feeling, Damasiostarts atthe

beginning. He sees emotion as a package of survival toolsthat originally evolvedto help

-- ---- -- _ - - - -


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living beings navigate their environmentsafely, providingbodily w arningsof dangerous

situations. These responses later evolvedto cause positive andnegative feelings, which

extended the impact of emotionsby leaving a permanentstamp on memory. Over

millionsof years, this feedback process between organism andenvironmentbirthed

foresight,and eventually, the humanability torespond to situations creatively.

Emotions familiar to us,such as happiness or anger, inthe same way, requirean

initial stimulus,one that correspondsto a visual or auditorymemory. These stimuli are

like keys, he says, that unlockthe mechanismsin the brain that trigger such behaviors as

crying. Crying,laughing, trembling,or fleeing then causes the feelingof sadness,

happiness,or fear. (Unless, as Parvizi's patientshave illustrated,the steps in the

emotional processare somehow interrupted.) "Psychologicallyunmotivatedand "acted"

emotional expressionshave thepower to cause feeling,"Damasio writes.

"Oh yes," J.J. El-Far, a graduate student in directingat the New School for Drama

in New York City told me, That's why we call it acting."

Sheila Donio's first attempted to cry onstage was as Rizzo in rease in 2001.

She has acted since childhoodand settled into professionalacting careeras a teenager in

Sao Paulo, Brazil. "AsI knew I wanted to cry on a specific scene,"she explained, I

started to work on Rizzo's emotionsat home, listening to the songused duringthe change

from theprevious scene to the crying scene. Studying Rizzo's emotions withthat specific

soundtrackmade my brain connectone thing with theother." Method acting, techniques

devised in the1930s by Constantin Stanislavski, and lateradapted by directorLee

Strasberg, emphasizethis kindof manipulationof sense memory. Studentsof this


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method learn to use personal memoriesof sensory details to trigger authentic

physiologicalreactions. Teaching herself, Sheila used this process to tap into the

pathways of her brain responsiblefor the generationof emotionalexpression. Crying on

command became second nature."Every time I heard that song, I would start to feel her

anxieties and frustrations and the buttons for crying would show up in my body, readyto

be pressed."

In 2000, Damasio and his colleaguespublishedthe results of a landmark study in

the field of emotionand feeling. The research teamhad startedthe study with the goal of

confirmingthe hypothesisthat the brain only begins to process feelingafter certain

regions detecta shift in physiologicalstate (emotion). The team asked forty-one

participatingindividualsto recall a particularlyvivid emotional episodeof their lives,

memories charged with happiness,sadness, anger,or fear. In a Positron -Emission

Tomographyscanner, whichdetects theactivity in brain regionsby measuring the blood

flow to or away from those regions, the participant re-livedthe chosenexperience. As

instructed,they each made a smallhand movement when they beganto feel the emotional

impactof the personalmemory.

The researchersfound that brain regions dedicated to mappingbodily phenomena,

like the somatosensorycortex located onthe top of the brain, came on-lineas soon as the

person reported feeling thememory's impact. More interestingly,the electricalmonitors

measuring physiologicalchanges like sweat levels inskin, revealed drasticchanges

before the feeling was felt. In other words,Damasio's team found that people raisedtheir

hand only after the emotion erupted within their bodies.It was evidence that emotional


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each basic emotion, happiness, sadness,anger, and fear, there wasa distinct cardio-

respiratory pattern.As Sheila tailored her inhalationsand exhalations, her body mapping

somatosensory cortex detectedthe body map for crying. The feelingof sadness followed

the tears. The tears amplified the feelings, creating a feedback loop. What Sheila

describes as a "highway," Damasio,who has been sketchinga map of human emotionfor

decades, thinksof it more as a two-lane rotary.

J.J El-Far sprang from behindthe director's table, slicing a pencil into a swath of

maple curls. "We are likeninety percent there,people " she said, her wildhands

accentuatingevery syllable. "The final thingI want to do is kind of put this lastgloss on

the piece, alast layer." Theeyes of the performers followedher body as she duplicated

"gloss" and "layer" with a sweeping,circular gesture. "And that last layer is the paradox.

It's lifting the piece out of the sadness and playing the happiness, especially youguys.

Especiallyyou guys," El-Far repeatedslowly, using two arms topoint at two actresses.

Her big brown eyes traveled betweenthe two women. "It fallsa lot onto your shoulders.

Also, we see it at the end, when we have this very sad song and a very, very happy dance,

a joyful dance. So that's what I am going to be looking for today,pulling out those

moments,lifting the piece upwith that. O.k.?"

The New School for Drama is a shiny, clean, calm-coloredmodern building,

jutting orange flags ontoa quiet side street in New York City's West Village. Most of

the practice roomsat 10:00 PM are dark, empty mirrored boxes. Except for the one from

which raised, laughing voices vibratedown the hall, through the rows of lockers hanging

. - -.. -.- - _ . . . . . . . --. _ ..


36/48

open, spilling binders,crumpled scripts,costume garments outonto the tiled floor.

Inside, El-Far lookedover the performers, some loungingin chairs, and some standing by

the mirror playing with the unlit prop cigarettes. Theyseemed tired, but filledwith

residual spirit from her energizeddelivery.

The performanceof Smoke, a student production about post-WWIIguilt and

romance, a "burnt valentine,"El-Far calls it, was three nights away and the emotional

edge in a few scenes wasn't sharp enough yet. "Asa director," El-Far toldme later that

night, "My job is to take the whole story and tobreak it down. And withan emotional

thermometer,understand what temperatureeach of those scenes is at. What's the hottest

scene, thecoldest scene? And I need to be able toget the actors there." To gauge the

emotional accessibilityof the performance,she must become "the ultimate audience

member" andsee and feel as an audience member, overand over again, multipletimes a

day. This enormousability originatesfrom a tiny sliverof her brain. Whethershe's

heard of it or not, her 'mirror' neuronsystem and those of her performers,is the

mechanism enabling her nightly theatricalexchange with her performers.

For the past decade thebuzz in neurosciencehas been about the discovery that the

visualbrain enables us to experiencewhat we see other people doingand experiencing.

It all startedwhen a macaque monkey grabbeda peanut in Parma, Italy. Vittorio Gallese

and his colleaguesat the University of Parma had surgicallyimplanted electrodesinto the

brains of two monkeysto study the neurons thatwere active when monkeysgrabbed and

reached for food. In 1995, they accidentlydiscovered thatneurons in the F5 area, or

inferior frontal gyrus, and theinferior parietallobule fired in the same way,not only

----- - - . -- -- --- -------------- -- --


37/48

when the monkey picked up the nut himself, but also when he watched the researcher

grabbing and eating. The monkey's brain appearedto register the movementof self and

other in the exactsame way. Immediately, the researchersnamed these active neurons

'mirror' neurons and hypothesizedthat the human brain might experiencemovementin a

similar way.

The performerswere taking a short break. The two women who play the mothers

stood with El-Farpracticingthe song through which theyare supposed to cry. I

approacheda group and broachedthe subject. We're actually workingon that in our

Mask class," saidactor JonathanZiese. Masking is a technique that performerspractice

to train their bodiesto be able to expressan emotional state without displayingthe

stereotypical response. It's showingthrough your body what itis like instead of actually

doing it. For example, you can't make a lip purse to show kissing. It's very much the

emotion of it. Crying? It was differentfor each of us." He took a stepback and

suddenly grasped hissweater over his heart, and twistinghis wrist, the fabric is dragged

into a swirl. Eyesdead as stones, he slowly, slowly, slowly loweredhis head until it

hung limp.

"And laughing?"I plead. Ziese widened hismouth into a wide O and grabbedthe

hair on top of head, and in quick succession,dropped to knees, looked and pointed

intensely straight ahead, slappedhis leg, and squeezed hiseyes closed. I could feel the

muscles in my bodypredicting hismovements. Everyonearound him laughed.Emotion

in acting is not all about conjuring tears through physiologicalmanipulationsand intense

memories. The audience inthe back row needs to recognize the cryingor joyous body


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just as intenselythe people in the front row. That's why the performermust play to the

visual brain, or the mirrorsreflecting within it.

Since the discoveryof the human mirror neuronnetwork,the visual brain andits

power to shape ourexperienceshas become less of a mystery. "Mirror neurons"as units

still onlytechnicallyexist in macaque monkeysbecause it is nearly impossible torecord

the activityof single neurons in the human brain. Butmany studieshave revealed that

swaths of neurons in the human premotorcortex activateboth whenwe are performingan

action and watching someone else perform an action,so we have a mirror system, not

single mirror neuronsas of yet. Our brains can "mirror" the actionsof those we watch.

We have the ability to exist for a moment in others' bodies. We feel our muscles clench

when we watch a figure skatertwist in the air or grab our stomachs whenthe ball

punchesthe goalie into the net. Andour mirrorneuron system couldexplain whywe

leave theater seats feelingrejuvenated,why I felt like laughing whenZiese mimicked the

actions of hilarity. That's why I say it's a living breathingthing," El-Farsaid. You're

never passivelyobserving. You're part of it, you're there."

In his continuous mirrorneuron system researchsince 1995, Gallese has found

strong connectionsbetween acting and mirror neuronsystems. Throughworking with

actors, herecently illustrated the contagiousnature of movement,and sound. Hehad a

professionalactor and actress perform sorrow and joy without utteringwords-laughing

and crying. He showed other participantssilent versionsof the actors' performanceand

recorded the movementof their facial muscles. In a second condition,the participants

just heard the sound of laughingor crying. "The results are pretty interesting," he


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reported at a mirror neuron conferencein 2007. If you see someone laughing,you have

strong activationof your zygomatic muscle, whichis active when you laugh. If you see

someone crying,you have an activationof the corrugator supercili.The sameresults are

obtainedwith sound." So, whetherwe hear laughingor crying,or watch theactions in

silence, our smiling and frowning muscles automaticallybegin to respond. In essence,

our emotionsbetray us as we sit in thetheater.

Sophie Scott,neuroscientistat University College of London,also studies

laughter and motorneuron systems. "Running in front of that cortex is this triangle

called thepremotor cortex," Scott showedme, tracing herfingeralong fluorescently

colored image of a brain on her computerscreen. "The premotorcortex has cells that are

functionallyresponsible forcomplex movements,so if you stimulate that youmight get

something like a vocalizationor a complexmovementof the arm." She was rehashing

the results of a 2006 study whereshe and other researchers testedto see if the sound of

nonverbalpositiveemotional sounds, likelaughing,would activate the region of the

premotor cortex that controls the facialexpressionmuscles of smiling or laughing, the

bright green sliverof brain on her screen.

Scott pressed 'Play' on heriTunes anda cacophony of laughter andshrieks, as

well as gagging and groans attacked the air, causing bothour faces to cringe and smile.

A few years ago, these were the sound samples usedin this study. Twenty subjects

listened to the samples, both positiveand negative emotionalvocalizations, whiletheir

brains were scannedwith fMRI. They weretold notto move theirfaces. The research

team analyzed theareas of brain activation, concentratingon effects of the amused


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...._ _ - - - - - - - _ - - . - - - -- - I~ . , .... ...- - _ . - -

sounds. The disgust samples were only controls. A specific part of their brains, the

premotor cortex that controlsthe muscle movements for positive facial expressions,

became activewhen the subjectsheard the delightnoises, even though they werenot

actually smiling or laughing. These participantswere experiencingother people's

apparenthappiness throughsound alone. In essence,their brainswere starting to share a

laugh. "When we have social interactionswe tend to mirror positiveemotions," Scott

explained. "Laughteris a social link. It's a very good signal that we're all in a safe

environment." The team suggests thatthis laughter-activatedmechanismin our brain

helps us establishcohesive social groups. It's part of the reason why, researchers say,

humans evolvedinto such agroup-orientedspecies.

Evidently,part of the reason the man in 6A started to laugh in the Lyttelton Theatreis

that the cells in his supplementarymotor cortex,the ones governing his zygomatic

muscles,activated as he watched the characterson stage laugh and smile. But the mirror

neuron system can't explain whyhumansdo, at times, laugh and cry at art. That's

moving into the territory of human nature,and to the everlasting questionof 'what does it

mean to be human? "Such primitivesocial urges were built into the brain long before

humans walkedthe face of the earth," saidPanksepp. "But in humans,they also link up

with muchhigher mental processes,thoughts and deliberations,so we can cry simply for

symbolic reasons,as highlightedby much great art. We can laugh and cry based on what

is happening on celluloidsimulacra. No other animal does that." Celluloid simulacra,or,


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material likenessesof our own lives, and theparticular human responseto such art, mark

a separationbetweenanimal andman.

The Chauvet cavern paintings,the immortal printsof lions hunting bisonand

horses bowingtheir heads, are reflectionsof a primal humandesire to reproduceand

create meaningfrom the environment.These carvings may be the oldest celluloid

simulacra archaeologistshave found yet, but eventhe newest productionssuch as Smoke

at the New School forDrama or August.: Osage County are examples of that division

betweenbeings whose place in the universe goes unpondered,and beings who,around

fifty thousandyears ago, long before mirrorswere made from glass, gained the

intelligenceto self reflect and an awareness of personal mortality. Somewherealong the

way, we met that recognitionof self with tears.

SociobiologistEdwardO. Wilson, contemplatingthe evolutionaryoriginsof art

and culture wrote, "Works of art communicate feeling directly from mindto mind, with

no intent to explain why this occurs." Art theoristsacknowledgeart's unique power to

instantaneouslytransmit the emotion potencyof human experience. Likewise, the

emotionallyladen social messages transcribed in the visualsand audio of laughs and cries

travel directly mind to human mind, mirror neuronto mirror neuron. Laughingand

crying are a kind of living art. Involuntaryemotionalexpression is a response to

celluloid simulacra,and in the case of theatre, it is also a vehicle of mind-to-mind

transmissionof emotion. If there is any possibility of translatingneuroscience into the

language of art, this is a fluent start.

Laughingand crying share limited space in scientific literature,and only


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discipline-crossingresearchers like Paul MacLean drawconnections betweenthem. But

bringing studies of laughingand cryingside to side in amulti-disciplinary mosaic

exposes a way new of thinking about 'humanness.' Over thesepast two million years,

the functions of laughing and crying have changed. All prior thought suggests that

separationcries and squeaks slowlyevolvedto carry messages of human emotion,up all

the way through the evolutionof language, until now, whenlaughing and crying pick up

where words cease to beadequate. Those changingfunctions trace'humanness' from its

origins in mammal utterance and chimpanzee playpanting all the way toappreciationof

spiritual transcendence. Throughlaughter and crying,we become human.

What has stayed constantis the power of these phenomena to forge socialbonds.

These innatebehavioralrepertoires demolishracial and language boundaries,even if for

a passing second. The audience member shares anemotionalexperiencewith hundreds

of other people and connects, on apersonal level, with reverberationsof an ancient

human nature. Itis not a stretch to connect the laughs andcries in a theatre to the

physiological expressionsevolved m illenniaago.

Paradoxically,blurringthe physiology,evolution,and neuroscienceof laughing

and crying results in the clearest of mirrors. Exposed are not only the minusculemirrors

in our motor cortex, but also the mirroring that happens between performerson stage or

between two people smilingas they passon the sidewalk. Exposedis the factthat

humans are wired with neurological machinery,involuntarybrainstemresponsesthat can

go awry, to mediate social lives. This machinery operateswithoutour permission,

shoving our emotionalnatures in our faces, forcing us to reflect, and revealingour


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feelings to others. Most of the time, we do not think abouthow any of it happens-

because it is perpetuallyhappeningall aroundus, leaping from our throats and eyes,

travelingbetweenus, throughus. There are times when angry tears permanentlydissolve

a relationship,or when a spiteful laughdrives mile long spikesbetweenpeople. But more

often,a tearful episode erases the need to apologize.A well-aimedjoke sets a room on

fire. And the walls come down.


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Sources and Further Reading

Interviews

Ad Vingerhoets, Professorof Clinical Health Psychology atTilburg University intheNetherlands. Phone interview, October2008.

Antonio Damasio,Neuroscientist,University of Californiaat Santa Barbara. Phoneinterview, February 11 2009.

Erich Seifritz, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Clinic forAffective Disordersand General Psychiatry at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. E-mailcorrespondence,May 2009.

Henning Scheich, Director of the Leibniz Institute forNeurobiologyCenter for Learningand Memory Research, Magdeburg,Germany. Phone interview,February 26,2009.

Jaak Panksepp,Neuroscientist,Washington State University. E-mail correspondence,February2009.

James Gross, Psychophysiologist,StanfordUniversity. Personal meeting and lab visit,

January 28, 2009.J.J. El-Far, Graduate Studentin Directing at the New School for Drama,New York City,

Personalmeeting and rehearsal observation,December 13, 2008.

Jo-Anne Bachorowski,Associate Professorof Psychologyat Vanderbilt University.Phone interview,February, 2009.

Jonathan Ziese, Graduate Student in Acting at the New School for Drama,New YorkCity. Personalmeeting and rehearsalobservation,December 13, 2009.

Josef Parvizi, AssistantProfessor Neurologyand NeurologicalSciences, Stanford

Medical School. Personal Interviewand clinic observation,January 28, 2009.Nathan Consedine,Deputy Director of the InterculturalInstituteon Human Development

and Aging, Institute of Long IslandUniversityand Research AssistantProfessor.Phone Interviews, February6, 2009 and May7, 2009.

Patrick McNamara,Associate Professor of Neurologyand Psychiatry,Boston UniversitySchool of Medicine. Phone interview,November 5 2008.


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Randolph Cornelius, professorof psychology, Americanculture, and cognitive science atVassar College. Phone interview, December2, 2008.

Robert Provine,Neuroscientist,University of Maryland. Phone interview, February20,2009.

Sheila Donio, Actress, PlaybackTheatre. Personalmeeting, December28, 2008.

Sophie Scott,Neuroscientist,University College of London, Personalinterview, January13, 2009.

Vinod Goel, Professorof Psychology, YorkUniversity, Phone interview,March 2009.

Wallace Chafe,Professor Emeritusof Linguistics, Universityof California. Phoneinterview, November15, 2008.

William Frey II, biochemist and neuroscientistat the University of Minnesota.

September28, 2008.

ooks

Chafe, Wallace L. The Importance of Not Being Earnest: The Feeling behind Laughter

and Humor. John Benjamins PublishingCompany, 2007.

Damasio, AntonioR. Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain.Harcourt,2003.

Darwin,Charles and Francis Darwin. The Expression of he Emotions in Man andAnimals. Plain Label Books, 1892.

Dunbar, Robin. Grooming, Gossip,and the Evolutionof Language. Harvard UniversityPress, 1998.

Feyerick,Ada, Cyrus Herzl Gordon and Nahum M. Sarna. Genesis: World of Myths andPatriarchs. NYU Press, 1996.

Frey, WilliamH. and Muriel Langseth. Crying: The Mystery of Tears. WinstonPress,1985.

Gilhus, Ingvild Swelid. Laughing Gods, Weeping Virgins: Laughter in the History ofReligion. Routledge, 1997.

S T Z Z S\


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James, William. What Is an Emotion? Wilder Publications,2007.

Koestler, Arthur. The Act of Creation. Macmillan,1969.

Lange, MarjoryE. Telling Tears in the English Renaissance. New York: Brill, 1996.

Letts, Tracy. August Osage County. Theatre CommunicationsGroup, 2008.

Lewis-Williams,J. David. TheMind in the Cave: Consciousnessand the Origins of Art.Thames & Hudson, 2004.

Lutz, Tom. Crying: the Natural and Cultural History of Tears. W. W. Norton &Company,2001.

Marrone, Marioand Nicola Diamond.Attachment and Interaction. Jessica KingsleyLimited, 1998.

MacLean, Paul D. The Triune Brain in Evolution: Role in Paleocerebral Functions.Springer, 1990.

Morris, Desmond. The Naked Ape: A Zoologist s Study of he Human Animal. McGraw-Hill, 1967.

Nelson, JudithKay. Seeing through Tears: Crying and Attachment. Routledge, 2005.

Pinker, Steven. How the Mind Works. Norton, 1997.

Provine,Robert R. Laughter: A Scientific Investigation. Little Brown & Co, 2002.

Rizzolatti,Giacomo, CorradoSinigagliaand Frances Anderson. Mirrors n the Brain:How Our Minds Share Actions and Emotions. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Sanders,Barry. Sudden Glory: Laughter as Subversive History. Beacon Press, 1996.

Shakespeare,William. Shakespeare Select Plays: Hamlet, Prince ofDenmark. HarvardUniversity, 1872.

Trimble, Michael R. The Soul in the Brain: The Cerebral Basis ofLanguage, Art, andBelief JHU Press, 2007.

Von Franz, Marie-Luise. Creation Myths. Shambhala,1995.

- -- ---- , - - - ----- .


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Walter, Chip. Thumbs, Toes, and Tears: And Other Traits That Make Us Human.Walker & Company, 2007.

Wilson, EdwardO. Consilience: The Unity ofKnowledge. Vintage Books,1999.

Articles

Buchowski,M.S., Majchrzak,K.M., Blomquist,K., Chen, K.Y., Byrne, D.W., andBashorowski,J-A. "Energy Expenditureof Genuine Laughter." InternationalJournal of Obesity (2007): 131-137.

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Panksepp, Jaak. "NeuroevolutionarySources of Laughterand Social Joy: ModelingPrimal Human Laughter in LaboratoryRats." Behavioural Brain Research 182(2007): 231-244.

Panksepp, Jaak. "Onthe Embodied N euralNature of Core EmotionalAffects." Journalof Consciousness Studies 12 (2005): 158-84.

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Wild et al. "Neural Correlatesof Laughter and Humour." Brain 126 (2003): 2121-2138.

Genevieve Wanucha, "The Clearest Mirror: The Science of Laughing and Crying"

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Transcript of Genevieve Wanucha, "The Clearest Mirror: The Science of Laughing and Crying"