Zusatztext "[A] well-written, often amusing and always fascinating exposé." ?Scientific American Informationen zum Autor Robert R. Provine has authored more than fifty research articles concerning developmental neuroscience and animal and human behavior. He has appeared on Good Morning America , ABC World News Tonight , 20/20 , and Scientific American Frontiers . Klappentext Do men and women laugh at the same things? Is laughter contagious? Has anyone ever really died laughing? Is laughing good for your health? Drawing upon ten years of research into this most common-yet complex and often puzzling-human phenomenon, Dr. Robert Provine, the world's leading scientific expert on laughter, investigates such aspects of his subject as its evolution, its role in social relationships, its contagiousness, its neural mechanisms, and its health benefits. This is an erudite, wide-ranging, witty, and long-overdue exploration of a frequently surprising subject. Zusammenfassung Do men and women laugh at the same things? Is laughter contagious? Has anyone ever really died laughing? Is laughing good for your health? Drawing upon ten years of research into this most common-yet complex and often puzzling-human phenomenon, Dr. Robert Provine, the world's leading scientific expert on laughter, investigates such aspects of his subject as its evolution, its role in social relationships, its contagiousness, its neural mechanisms, and its health benefits. This is an erudite, wide-ranging, witty, and long-overdue exploration of a frequently surprising subject. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgments 1. Laughter: An Introduction 2. The Road Not Taken: Philosophical and Theoretical Approaches to Laughter 3. Natural History of Laughter 4. Cracking the Laugh Code: From Sound Lab to Opera Studio 5. Chimpanzee Laughter, Speech Evolution, and Paleohumorology 6. Ticklish Relationships 7. Contagious Laughter and the Brain 8. Abnormal and Inappropriate Laughter: Clinical Perspectives 9. Laughing Your Way to Health Appendix: Ten Tips for Increasing Laughter: Perspectives from the Mall, Workplace, and Clinic Notes References Index...

"[A] well-written, often amusing and always fascinating exposé." —Scientific American

Autorentext

Robert R. Provine has authored more than fifty research articles concerning developmental neuroscience and animal and human behavior. He has appeared on Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, 20/20, and Scientific American Frontiers.

Klappentext

Do men and women laugh at the same things?
Is laughter contagious?
Has anyone ever really died laughing?
Is laughing good for your health?

Drawing upon ten years of research into this most common-yet complex and often puzzling-human phenomenon, Dr. Robert Provine, the world's leading scientific expert on laughter, investigates such aspects of his subject as its evolution, its role in social relationships, its contagiousness, its neural mechanisms, and its health benefits. This is an erudite, wide-ranging, witty, and long-overdue exploration of a frequently surprising subject.

Inhalt
Acknowledgments

1. Laughter: An Introduction
2. The Road Not Taken: Philosophical and Theoretical Approaches to Laughter
3. Natural History of Laughter
4. Cracking the Laugh Code: From Sound Lab to Opera Studio
5. Chimpanzee Laughter, Speech Evolution, and Paleohumorology
6. Ticklish Relationships
7. Contagious Laughter and the Brain
8. Abnormal and Inappropriate Laughter: Clinical Perspectives
9. Laughing Your Way to Health
   Appendix: Ten Tips for Increasing Laughter: Perspectives from the Mall, Workplace, and Clinic
   Notes
   References
   Index