The humorous stimuli
If a child has sense of humor early on, it may mean he's got the genes. Study shows the same parts of the brain that respond to humor in adults are as active in children as early as six years old. And these parts of the brain develop; become more sophisticated with age.
Researchers say this "finding should lead to a better understanding of how positive emotions like a sense of humor develop and affect a child's well-being."
Let us touch a little on the significance of humor, the good kind of humor. Better clarify that as there's a dark sense of humor, a rotten sense of humor, a sick sense of humor, etcetera. Researchers featured on WebMD specified "balanced and consistent sense of humor may help children negotiate the difficult period of pre-adolescence and adolescence."
Don't we all remember the confusion, difficulty as well as the excitement of adolescence? Do you remember how humor helped in whatever way?
A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience show how researchers analyzed brain scans of 15 children aged 6 to 12 years while they watched short video clips. These videos were classified funny (funny and rewarding to watch), positive (rewarding but not funny), and neutral (neither rewarding nor funny).
The results showed that the funny videos activated two regions of the brain, i.e., a lot of activity; that are also activated in the adult brain in response to humor.
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="75" caption="English: Dolphy, Filipino actor (Photo credit: Wikipedia)"]
[/caption]Talking of laughter, the passing away of the King of Comedy, Dolphy holds the top spot on Philippine broadcast media this week, doesn't it? How did he keep people laughing for sixty years? I wonder if he already showed signs of such talent when he was a kid.
Among the speeches at the tribute services, I find myself laughing through my tears at Nova Villa's account of her funny moments with Dolphy, eg. ("ay hindi pala si Tita Cory... huminto ako sa ka-iiyak dahil sa hiya..." "yon bang wine... pagdating sa bahay binuksan ni Tito Dolphy ang regalo ko, ayun patis!") I mistook Aunt Cory for someone... so embarrassed that I stopped crying.... That wine we were all keen at that time... when he got home Uncle Dolphy opened my gift, the bottle I gave him and voila! Fish sauce!
May I leave you, friends with this quote: He who laughs, lasts.
Although it doesn't biologically apply to the dearly departed Dolphy right now :)
well I guess my son is, he makes me laugh always and we enjoy talking or have a conversation with others
ReplyDeleteI don't have any kids yet, but I'm quite close to my godchildren. I have to say, it amazes me on how sharp their minds are at a young age. I've always thought it had something to do with the milk. Thanks to your post, I've learned that it's more than that.
ReplyDeleteHmm.. this actually made me think about the kids in our family who may already possess this kind of trait. :)
ReplyDeleteI think my daughter too :D Sometime she tends to make fun out of us :/
ReplyDeleteKids nowadays do have this kind of advance thinking. Maybe because of the milk they drink.
ReplyDeletepeople with a good sense of humor see life in a positive outlook, they cannot be easily frustrated by issues :)
ReplyDeleteAll my kids have their own kind of humor but I do hope none would be categorized as sick, dark or rotten :/ I think it's their being masayahin, so as Dolphy was that makes them rub fun to the people around them...
ReplyDeletei'm glad my daughter got her sense of humor from me. she just makes me laugh without an effort! just this morning she blurted out, "who's the first to pop out in mommy's tummy?" = who was born first, her kuya or she?
ReplyDeleteoh. in this case, none of my kids have a sense of humor. mana sakin:) their dad is the only funny man in the house :)
ReplyDelete