• DocumentCode
    2180633
  • Title

    The amused brain: Neuropsychoanalytic perspectives on laughter, humor and mirth

  • Author

    Wiest, Gerald ; Brainin, Elisabeth

  • Author_Institution
    Dept. of Neurology, Med. Univ. Vienna, Vienna
  • fYear
    2009
  • fDate
    21-23 May 2009
  • Firstpage
    367
  • Lastpage
    371
  • Abstract
    Laughter is an extremely rare clinical symptom of focal epilepsy. We present the video-documented case reports of two patients with epileptic laughter. Our data imply, that laughter responses can be triggered in humans from frontal areas down to the hypothalamus. The findings are discussed within the context of current neuroscientific, psychoanalytic and evolutionary concepts of laughter, humor and mirth.
  • Keywords
    brain; neurophysiology; clinical symptom; evolutionary concepts; focal epilepsy; neuropsychoanalytic perspectives; neuroscientific concepts; psychoanalytic concepts; Animals; Context; Deafness; Epilepsy; Humans; Nervous system; Neuroscience; Pediatrics; Psychology; Rats; affect; disinhibition; emotions; evolution; humor; network; psychoanalysis;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • Conference_Titel
    Human System Interactions, 2009. HSI '09. 2nd Conference on
  • Conference_Location
    Catania
  • Print_ISBN
    978-1-4244-3959-1
  • Electronic_ISBN
    978-1-4244-3960-7
  • Type

    conf

  • DOI
    10.1109/HSI.2009.5091007
  • Filename
    5091007