2023-07-03 15:35:48
July 03, 2023
Laughter and tears can go together at the same time. Hence the expression “to cry with laughter”, which also finds a scientific explanation.
Laugh until you cry. This expression is attributed to Madame de Sévigné who would have defined it in 1675. It is regarding this physiological phenomenon frequently observed when a person laughs a lot: tears end up flowing.
Two opposite manifestations then occur at the same time, laughter, which evokes joy, and crying, which more generally evokes sadness. But tears, this aqueous and salty liquid, secreted by the lacrimal glands, can thus arise under the influence of various strong emotions and thus accompany a fit of laughter.
A team of researchers from Yale University thus became interested in the phenomena via a series of studies on these apparently contradictory emotional manifestations. According to their conclusions, it would be a way to rebalance strong emotions. “This phenomenon seems to take place when people are overwhelmed by strong positive emotions. People in whom this manifests seem to recover better from these strong emotions ”, notes psychologist Oriana Aragon, lead author of the study published in the journal Psychological Science. They would thus be able to moderate intense emotions more quickly.
Another clue: the part of the brain that controls laughing and crying is the same. The German neurologist Christian W. Hess has particularly studied the “neurology of laughter”. He quotes Goethe that “Laughing and crying are cousins”. Before explaining : “Laughter finds its emotional opposite in crying, with which it is moreover probably, from the phylogenetic point of view (note: branch of genetics dealing with genetic modifications within animal or plant species), closely linked”.
Anti-stress
For the author, this observation “also explains that the two manifestations can, in extreme conditions and also in healthy subjects, occur in a paradoxical way, mixed or even combined”. All the more so, as some studies have also shown, since laughter and tears are not insignificant levers to ward off stress.
Conversely, nervous laughter also appears when some people are faced with harsh, sad or painful situations. They shouldn’t be laughing, and yet the nervous tension is so strong that it’s impossible to help it.
Source: Hess, C., W., et al. Laughter Neurology, Rev Med Switzerland, Vol. -6, no. 179, 2008, p. 2473–2477. – Nurs Forum. 1989;24(1):18-26 – Brain. 2011 Dec; 134(12): 3455–3466. – Le Robert The Psychological Science Dictionary, 2014
Written by: David Picot – Edited by: Vincent Roche
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#Laughter #tears #close #Featured
