Beyond a Joke

Description

Humans have always regarded the ability to laugh and appreciate humor as one of the factors that sets them apart from other species. But investigations into the causes of laughter have led researchers to question this exclusivity, as they have discovered the ape's equivalent of human laughter and even observed that rats can express their own sense of humor. This program reveals that neurologists have traced people's instinct to laugh to a highly evolved part of the brain that controls language-and how the study of the role of laughter, particularly in child development and relaxation, is leading to a controversial theory about the treatment of hyperactivity.

Runtime

50 min

Subjects

Genre

Date of Publication

[2012], c1998

Database

Films on Demand

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