Introduction: Chronic pain is a debilitating condition that affects many people. Currently, there is no single treatment known to cure or assure relief from chronic pain. Accordingly, the management of patients' discomfort is an integral part of treating chronic pain. Such treatment, however, is not effective for many patients. We investigated whether mirthful laughter provided by comic relief can influence pain tolerance and muscle soreness in young healthy participants.
Methods: Forty participants underwent a randomized controlled cross-over designed experiment. Each participant was exposed to a comedy video eliciting mirthful laughter and an uninteresting documentary. Delayed onset muscle soreness was induced in one leg at a time by eccentric exercise. Pain tolerance was tested using blunt force application and assessed subjectively using a visual analog scale.
Results: Watching the comedy video elicited a significantly greater irregular breathing pattern compared with watching the documentary video (p < 0.001). After watching the comedy, the participants' positive affect was increased (Δ2 ± 1) while it was largely decreased (Δ-11 ± 2) after watching the documentary video (p < 0.001). Pain tolerance was decreased by 17 ± 5 N after viewing the documentary video (p < 0.001), but did not change significantly after watching the comedy.
Conclusions: Thirty minutes of watching a comedy eliciting laughter favorably influenced pain tolerance in healthy humans. CLINICAL TRIAL NO.: #NCT02896075.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbmt.2019.04.005 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Functional parcellation of the cingulate gyrus by electrical cortical stimulation: a synthetic literature review and future directions.
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry
July 2024
Department of Neurology, The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Background: The cingulate gyrus (CG), a brain structure above the corpus callosum, is recognised as part of the limbic system and plays numerous vital roles. However, its full functional capacity is yet to be understood. In recent years, emerging evidence from imaging modalities, supported by electrical cortical stimulation (ECS) findings, has improved our understanding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEstablishing the Roles of the Dorsal and Ventral Striatum in Humor Comprehension and Appreciation with fMRI.
J Neurosci
December 2023
BrainsCAN, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
Humor comprehension (i.e., getting a joke) and humor appreciation (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIctal semiology of gelastic seizures.
Epilepsy Behav
March 2023
"Claudio Munari" Epilepsy Surgery Center, Niguarda Hospital, Milan, Italy.
Article Synopsis
- Gelastic seizures are rare forms of epilepsy, often marked by laughter or smiles, primarily caused by hypothalamic hamartoma, although other brain lesions can also be involved.
- A study of 16 patients found that most had laughter as the main seizure sign, with emotional laughter linked to lesions in the hypothalamic region, while mechanical laughter occurred in those with lesions elsewhere.
- The findings suggest that emotional expressions during gelastic seizures, especially in children, are more likely tied to hypothalamic hamartoma, whereas less expressive laughter points to extra-hypothalamic issues.
A clinical evaluation of gelastic and dacrystic seizures: a multicenter study.
Arq Neuropsiquiatr
December 2022
Bursa Uludag University, Faculty of Medicine, Epilepsy Center, Department of Neurology, Bursa, Turkey.
Background: Gelastic seizures are extremely rare, short-lasting, unprovoked, and uncontrollable laughing attacks. We conducted this retrospective evaluation to determine whether these symptoms, manifesting in different forms, such as cheerful laughter, laughing, smiling, and sobbing had any value in terms of etiology or localization.
Methods: A total of 31 patients who exhibited bouts of laughing or crying and who were under follow-up between 2000 and 2019 at tertiary epilepsy centers were included in the study.
Can a robot laugh with you?: Shared laughter generation for empathetic spoken dialogue.
Front Robot AI
September 2022
Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
Spoken dialogue systems must be able to express empathy to achieve natural interaction with human users. However, laughter generation requires a high level of dialogue understanding. Thus, implementing laughter in existing systems, such as in conversational robots, has been challenging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!