Did you ever wonder what happens when something funny happens? I mean, what is this thing we have in our brains that makes us say “ha-ha” when someone slips on a banana?

有沒有想過，當(dāng)搞笑的事情發(fā)生在眼前時，（大腦里）發(fā)生了什么？我是指，當(dāng)我們看到有人踩在香蕉皮上滑倒時，究竟是大腦里的什么物質(zhì)讓我們發(fā)出“哈哈”的笑聲。

One way to find out is to watch the brain laugh. That’s pretty much what Dartmouth neuroscientist William Kelley did. He and his team had a number of volunteers watch an episode of Seinfeld while being monitored by an MRI–that’s a machine that allows researchers to see which parts of the brain are active at any given time. They then synchronized the MRI data with the laugh track to see how the brain changes when it’s registering something funny. There’s no one “funny center” in the brain–but the findings were pretty suggestive.

解決這個問題的方法之一就是觀察大腦是怎么“笑”的。達特茅斯的神經(jīng)學(xué)家威廉凱利就對此做了深入研究。他和他的研究小組讓一些志愿者觀看一段塞恩菲爾德的喜劇，同時用核磁共振儀監(jiān)視志愿者們的大腦內(nèi)部變化，以便隨時檢測出大腦的哪個部分比較活躍。之后，他們把大腦核磁共振得出的數(shù)據(jù)同笑聲的波形圖進行契合，以檢測出當(dāng)處理搞笑的信息時，大腦有什么變化。雖然研究中沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)大腦中存在處理搞笑信息的中樞，但是研究成果還是十分具有指導(dǎo)意義的。

When subjects were looking at something funny, the first thing it happened was that two regions in their left hemispheres lit up. From previous studies these regions are known to be associated with resolving ambiguity. Is there something in “getting it” that’s related to the process by which we work with unclear information until we suddenly see the pattern in it?

當(dāng)研究對象看到好笑的地方，他們的大腦左半球里有兩塊區(qū)域（在儀器中）最先變亮了。據(jù)以往的研究來看，這兩塊區(qū)域與進行模糊判斷能力有關(guān)。就像當(dāng)我們做事情時，一開始摸不著頭腦，而后突然靈光一現(xiàn)，看清了問題的本質(zhì)，那時，我們就會興奮地喊一句“懂了！”。

A couple seconds later two other brain regions became active, called the insula and the amygdala. The insula is associated with emotion, so it seems likely that this is the brain feeling good when it gets the joke–the “ha-ha” response.

幾秒鐘之后，（研究對象的）大腦的島葉和杏仁核等其他區(qū)域開始活躍了。腦島與人的情緒有關(guān)，看來可能是在接收到好笑的信息時，大腦感覺良好，于是（讓身體）做出了“哈哈”的反應(yīng)。

The amygdala is associated with memory formation. As the researchers point out, while you may not be able to remember every plot detail in a Seinfeld episode, you can probably remember the jokes. Humor stays with us, forming a lasting memory. Get it?

杏仁核和記憶能力有關(guān)。正如研究員們指出的那樣，雖然你可能記不住喜劇中的每一個情景細節(jié)，但是你很可能記住了好笑的地方。好笑的事物能夠在我們的大腦里形成長久性記憶，因此不易忘卻。這下懂了吧？


Notes:

neuroscientist: 神經(jīng)學(xué)家

insula: 島葉

amygdala: 杏仁核（大腦區(qū)域之一）

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