Before there was speech, there was laughter. It turns out that laughter has an evolutionary past and is not a uniquely human trait.
Jaak Panksepp, a professor of psychobiology at Bowling Green State University discovered that when rats play they often chirp, which he describes as a primitive form of laughter. In a 2003 study, “rats that received tickles bonded with researchers and became rapidly conditioned to seek tickles.”1 Another researcher Robert Provine, a psychology professor at the University of Maryland says that laughter evolved from tickling and rough-and-tumble play.1
The therapeutic value of laughter in humans is well documented, but have we evolved too far from our tickle seeking past? Can we learn a thing of two from our “rough-housing” primitive ancestors? Babies laugh when tickled, children laugh 300 times a day, but adults only laugh 15 times a day.2
In the future, prescriptions for mood disorders could read “administer three times daily, one-half hour of intensive tickling or labored breathing play, possible side effects can include but are not limited to: peeing your pants, making incoherent noises, begging to stop, and yelling the word 'uncle' at the top of your lungs.”
At our house, rough-housing always goes a little too far and usually ends with someone crying. But you know what? I’m going to risk it. I’m going to take a step backward to move a step forward. That's right, I'm going to laugh until I cry. Crying is good for you, too, right?
1http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0331_050331_animallaughter.html2http://www.hinduonnet.com/folio/fo0003/00030440.htm
2http://www.hinduonnet.com/folio/fo0003/00030440.htm
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