IT is a complex task for the human brain to spot the difference between a person laughing with you or or taunting you. But research carried out by scientists now shows how the brain precisely processes the different types of laughter signals.
In an article published in the Us journal, Plos One, the researchers from the German city of Tuebingen report that positive non-verbal communication, such as joyful laughter, releases different reactions compared to negative signals like a taunt.
Scientist and doctor of psychiatry Dirk Wildgruber from the University of Tuebingen said: "Laughter is a very strong signal when it comes to social interaction".
"A person feels accepted when he is smiled at. However, a person feels excluded from the group when on the receiving end of a taunt."
As part of their research, Wildgruber and his team exposed their test subjects to different laughter sounds and measure how these were processed in the brain.
The scientists found that when we hear a person being tickled, the neural connections in our brains are mainly just doing acoustic analysis of quite a complicated noise.
By contract, when processing taunting and friendly laughter types, we activate brain areas associated with mentalising and forming visual associations.
Visual imagery may support the formation of inferences on the intentions of our social counterparts.
"This is extremely relevant for our patients in psychiatry."
says Wildgruber.
In many psychological illnesses such as pathological anxiety, depression or schizophrenia, the ability to recognise non-verbal signals is often stunted.
The scientists hope their findings will lead to improved treatment for patients suffering from these - dpa.
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