From Ha-Ha to A-HA!:
Humor's role in healthy brain development
Shirley K. Trout, M.Ed

Humor isn't just for fun, anymore! With the increasing understanding of how the brain "grows," researchers are better able to explain the important role humor plays in stimulating important a child's healthy psycho/socio/emotional and cognitive development.

Understanding "How"
The first parts of the brain to develop are the five senses: First touch and sound, then taste, sight and smell. Stimulating these five senses with a focus on humor creates a physical and emotional picture of the world laughing and experiencing joy.
The R-System (see figure) encompasses our sensory-motor system and all physical processes. Our "old-mammalian" brain provides our emotions. It elevates our reptilian responses to a complex of "feeling-tones," including like-dislike, good-bad, angry-happy, sorrow-joy, love-hate polarities. This emotional brain maintains all relationships, such as our immune system and our body's capacity for healing itself, emotional bonds, and response to danger — real or imagined (Pearce, '92).
Adler ('27) noted, emotions are generally of two kinds:

• conjunctive (bringing people together), and

• disjunctive (creating distance between people).

Laughter and joy are conjunctive. They bring people together and facilitate the bonding process (Mosak & Maniacci, 1993).

Exploring "Why"
How humans develop and learn depends on the interplay between nature (an individual's genetic endowment) and nurture (the nutrition, surroundings, care, stimulation, and teaching that are provided or withheld).
The ways that parents, families and other caregivers relate and respond to young children, and the ways that they mediate their children's contact with the environment directly affect the formation of neural pathways (Shore, 1997).
In his book, How to Raise a Child with a High EQ, author Lawrence Shapiro explains that the emotional and logical parts of the brain often serve different functions in determining our behaviors, and yet they are completely interdependent. The emotional part of the brain (limbic system) responds more quickly and with more force. The thinking part (the cortex) can act as a damper switch, giving meaning to an emotional situation before we act on it. The third component of the neurological system that relates to emotional intelligence are biochemical correlates of emotions, called neuropeptides, or neurotransmitters. "With every emotional reaction, the brain sends out these chemicals to a complex system of receptors, which are spread throughout the body" (Shapiro, 1998).
Harvard psychologist Jerome Kagan has theorized that a child's temperament reflects a specific innate emotional circuitry in the brain, and that being born "behaviorally inhibited, " or timid, is one of four temperaments which he believes characterize humans at birth.
In his work with timid children, Kagan has found that two-thirds of these children grow up to become anxious, phobic, and socially inhibited as they mature. He contends that these children apparently do not develop the neural pathways that allow the thinking part of the brain to help the emotional brain to calm itself.
But about a third of the children he studied seemed to have tamed their overexcitable emotional brains and were well-socialized by the time they entered kindergarten.
The difference in these children was the way their parents had responded to their timidity since they were infants. He found that mothers of the still-timid children were protective of their children, while the mothers whose children outgrew their shyness literally "changed the development of their [children's] brains" by teaching their children to cope with what upset them (Shapiro, 1998).
"Kagan hypothesized that the neurochemistry of the children who outgrew their timidity changed because their parents continually exposed them to new obstacles and challenges, while the children who were not challenged kept the same brain circuits and so remained emotionally overreactive" (Shapiro, 1998).

Correlation to Life Stressors
Pioneering research by Martin and Lefcourt have led the way in understanding the relationship between humor and several psychological outcomes and conditions. Included in these studies is an examination of sense of humor as a moderator between stressors and moods ('83). "In general, positive correlations have been found between the number of negative life events and the severity of negative moods, such as depression, anxiety, tension, and so forth."
Another study by Kuiper, Martin and Olinger ('93) supported the proposal that a sense of humor may facilitate coping and adjustment. For example, of special relevance in this research is the relationship between humor and various cognitive appraisals relating to an academic examination. With regard to reappraisals, individuals with a greater sense of humor appeared to be better able to reappriaise the exam in a self-protective manner when their performance was poorer than they had expected.
In contrast, the challenge and reappraisals provided by low-humor individuals were actually contrary to a self-protective pattern (with greater challenge and importance assumed for poorer performances). Additionally, low-humor subjects reported higher levels of stress following better-than-expected performance. And high-humor individuals tended to adjust their expectations for the next exam in a realistic manner on the basis of their performance on the most recent exam, compare to low-humor individuals.

Bibliography

Adler (1927). Understanding human nature (W.B. Wolfe, Trans.). New York: Fawcett Primier.
Fry, W.F. & Salameh, W.A. (Eds.) (1993). Advances in Humor and Psychotherapy. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press.
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam. ISBN: 0-553-09503-X.
Kagan, J. (1995). Galen's prophesy: Temperament in human nature. New York: Basic Books.
Kuiper, N.A, Martin, R.A., & Olinger, L.J. (1993). Coping humour, stress, and cognitive appaisals. In Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 25:1, 81-96.
Martin, R.A. & Lefcourt, H.M. (1983). Sense of humor as a moderator of the relation between stressors and moods. In Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45:6, 1313-1324. 
Pearce, J.C. (1992). Evolution's end. SanFrancisco: HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN: 0-06-250693-5.
Shapiro, R. (1998). How to Raise a Child with a High EQ. New York: HarperCollins.
Shore, R. (1997). Rethinking the brain: New insights into early development. New York: Families and Work Institute.
Trout, S.K. (1999). Humor's link to reduced substance use by early adolescents: The attachment factor. Waverly, NE: Teachable Moments.

1. In what positive ways do humor & laughter stimulate the 5 senses?

2. Of what relevance is REPETITION regarding brain development?

3. Discuss the value of reinforcing humor, laughter and a positive perspective.

Exploring "How to"

1. Determine the age of the children in this exercise.

2. Brainstorm types of humor-stimulating resources available in the child's environment.

3. DISCUSS & PROCESS:

Identify a typical scenario that causes concern.

Discuss typical adult responses.

Brainstorm humor-based interventions.

Be prepared to demonstrate no fewer than 3 humor-based interventions.

4. DEMONSTRATE

5. BUILD UPON

6. PROCESS