The amused brain: Neuropsychoanalytic perspectives on laughter, humor and mirth

Laughter is an extremely rare clinical symptom of focal epilepsy. We present the video-documented case reports of two patients with epileptic laughter. Our data imply, that laughter responses can be triggered in humans from frontal areas down to the hypothalamus. The findings are discussed within the context of current neuroscientific, psychoanalytic and evolutionary concepts of laughter, humor and mirth.