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Is motor inhibition during laughter due to emotional or respiratory influences?
Author(s) -
Overeem Sebastiaan,
Taal Walter,
Öcal Gezici E.,
Lammers Gert Jan,
Van Dijk J. Gert
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2003.00145.x
Subject(s) - laughter , psychology , cataplexy , reflex , respiratory system , h reflex , task (project management) , audiology , anesthesia , narcolepsy , neuroscience , medicine , psychiatry , neurology , management , economics
We compared the effects of laughter and several respiratory movements on spinal motor excitability to unravel their respective influences. We measured H‐reflexes in 13 healthy volunteers during 10 different tasks (including laughter, simulated laughter, and various respiratory movements). We compared the percentage that remained of the initial H‐reflex during each task with that during a neutral task. H‐reflex percentage differed between the neutral task (79.4±16.1%), true laughter (43.7±17.9%), and simulated laughter (66.6±24.3%), and between the two latter tasks. Coughing also resulted in H‐reflex suppression, but not as deeply as true laughter. During the other respiratory maneuvers, the H‐reflex increased compared to the neutral task. Our finding that true laughter evoked more H‐reflex depression than simulated laughter suggests that mirth on its own depresses the H‐reflex. This mechanism may also be involved in the pathophysiology of cataplexy, the main symptom of narcolepsy.