Dogs laugh. Rats chuckle.

[shereads]

Dog owners knew this already, but we kept it to ourselves for fear that the rest of you would recognize our symptoms.

Recent studies appear to have isolated the noise dogs make when they are amused or at play a sound which some researchers say mirrors the human laugh.

Nevada researcher Patricia Simonet of Sierra Nevada College in Lake Tahoe believes dogs make a specific noise during play that is distinctive from other sounds made during passive or aggressive confrontation. Simonet describes the sound as a breathy exhalation that sounds to a human ear like a dog's regular panting. However, when the frequency of the "laugh" was analysed, it was found to have a far broader range of frequencies than a regular pant.

As part of the investigation, Simonet noted the behaviour patterns of fifteen young dogs in an observation room. She broadcast recordings of the "laugh-pant" that she had taken earlier, and found the dogs reacted with excitement, often picking up a toy or approaching a presumed playmate, if another dog or human was in the room. Even Simonet's own attempts at emulating the sound prompted favourable reactions in the dogs, causing them to move towards her in a playful way, looking for a romp.

Laughing at play

Simonet is not the first researcher to theorise on the existence of animal laughter. Brian Knutson of the National Institutes of Health in Maryland has recorded sounds made by laboratory rats as they wrestle with one another. Apparently, the rats emit a distinct chirping noise when wrestling in a playful manner, a sound that they repeat before receiving morphine or having sex. Knutson suggests the sound is an expression of pleasure - one the rats make when they know they are to be rewarded.

Predicton: studies will show that Benny Hill induces the laughter response in 60% of male rats. ~ SR

Knutson's rat studies have significant implications for neuroscientists wanting to track the rodents' brains' reward circuitry. But he believes there is still some way to go before scientists can accurately measure how the rats' chirps compare to a guffaw or chuckle from a human.

Another analyst of rat chirps, Jaak Panskepp of Bowling Green University, Ohio, goes one step further to suggest laughter, at least in response to a direct physical stimulus such as tickling, may be a common trait shared by all mammals. In order to record the sounds rats made sounds of exceptionally high frequency Professor Panskepp placed a recording device in the cage with the rats in his study, and proceeded to tickle them gently around the nape of their necks. The rats soon began to emit their high-pitched squeak even at the sight of the recording device, as if in anticipation of being tickled. Panskepp noted, "the older animals do not chirp as much as the younger ones but they still like it a lot and they'll follow your hand around and get all excited. This emotional response that they're showing is quite a primitive form of laughter that maybe all mammals share."

Rats: Ticklish

Professor Robert R Provine also notes instances of perceived laughter in chimpanzees in his book Laughter: A Scientific Investigation. While studying the origins of the human laugh, Provine spent time tickling and playing with young chimpanzees at the Yerkes Regional Primate Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Provine discovered chimpanzees responded to pleasurable stimulus in the same way as dogs by emitting a breathy, panting sound.

The studies have many implications for scientists wanting to know more about how laughter is used as a form of communication, not only in animals, but ultimately in humans.

The initial research notes that dogs usually restrict making their "laugh-pant" noise to when they are around other dogs. This would indicate the sound is a communication tool, allowing other dogs to pick up the mood of dogs around them. Like humans, animal laughter appears to be infectious, with all dogs seeming to respond to an initial burst of "dog laughter" with a mirrored sound of their own.

I googled the article after seeing a CNN report tonight about a study of laughter in dogs. When a recording of the "laugh-pant" was played over loudspeakers in an animal shelter, all of the dogs stopped barking and appeared calmer.

Spectrograph of dog laughter:

http://www.petalk.org/DogLaughSpect.html

Translation: "Heh-heh! That Benny Hill cracks me up."

 

[lucky-E-leven]

For the dogs - awwww & *giggle*







For the rats - FUCK YOU! (Wanna know why I was up at 4:30 a.m.? I'll give you one good guess.

~lucky

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I want to know if dogs grab their crotches and leer.

Or is that just soimething that New Jersey Italians do?

Interesting to know if non-pack animals laugh too, like cats.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

I want to know if dogs grab their crotches and leer.

Or is that just soimething that New Jersey Italians do?

Interesting to know if non-pack animals laugh too, like cats.

Have you ever tried to tickle a cat?

Another analyst of rat chirps, Jaak Panskepp of Bowling Green University, Ohio, goes one step further to suggest laughter, at least in response to a direct physical stimulus such as tickling, may be a common trait shared by all mammals. In order to record the sounds rats made sounds of exceptionally high frequency Professor Panskepp placed a recording device in the cage with the rats in his study, and proceeded to tickle them gently around the nape of their necks. The rats soon began to emit their high-pitched squeak even at the sight of the recording device, as if in anticipation of being tickled. Panskepp noted, "the older animals do not chirp as much as the younger ones but they still like it a lot and they'll follow your hand around and get all excited. This emotional response that they're showing is quite a primitive form of laughter that maybe all mammals share."

Rats: Ticklish

 

[matriarch]

I am constantly amazed at some of the scientific research that goes on around the world.

 

[woodnymph_O]

I saw something on tv once about a man who had been given a federal grant for more than 50 thousand dollars a year to study the mating habits of some kind of flies.
I'd like to be paid that well to be a fly fuck watcher
Gotta love the absurd side of science.
Oh , other weird thing was he had already been sttudying them for 5 years and said it would be atleast 5 more til he had all the info they needed. Aparently those flies really have imagination , and do it more ways than us

 

[NoJo]

Aparently those flies really have imagination , and do it more ways than us

That's only becuase they have an unfair advantage. I'm sure we humans could give them a run for their money if we also had six legs, wings and antennae.

 

[Stella_Omega]

speaking of imagination... don't you LOVE Woodnymph's av?
[/threadjack]

 

[zeb1094]

Have you ever tried to tickle a cat?

Yep, got the shit scratched out of my arm. Never try that again. Little ungrateful bastard.

 

[Tom Collins]

I want to know if dogs grab their crotches and leer.

Or is that just soimething that New Jersey Italians do?

Interesting to know if non-pack animals laugh too, like cats.

As someone who has been owned by one or more cats most of my life, I can certify that cats do not laugh. They sneer.

 

[shereads]

I want to know if dogs grab their crotches and leer.

Or is that just soimething that New Jersey Italians do?

Interesting to know if non-pack animals laugh too, like cats.

Yes, but only during the early stages of dating. Once the boy cat scores, the girl cat loses access to the TV remote; the relationship lasts until she can no longer stomach another episode of "Dr. Who" and claws her eyes out.

Actually, Dr. M, I had the same question when I read the article. If laughter is really a form of communication, then I'd guess it's confined to social animals. Cats like to play, but they seem so serious about it. Dogs think it's funny.

Note that the study suggests dogs don't laugh when they're alone. I rarely do either, even when something is funny. I only laugh out loud while I'm alone if something is not only funny but surprising; it rarely happens unless I have a mouthful of Diet Coke or hot coffee to spew onto the keyboard.

I gather that a scientist couldn't draw any conclusions from that, because there are too many variables: Is the beverage necessary to the LOL? Is it the caffeine? Can there be no LOL if there isn't a keyboard to block the spray of Diet Coke?

 

[shereads]

As someone who has been owned by one or more cats most of my life, I can certify that cats do not laugh. They sneer.

Good God! Is that Minsue strapped to your groin?

 

[shereads]

I want to know if dogs grab their crotches and leer.

To the extent that they can without opposable thumbs, yes. Visit your nearest dog park and you'll see a form of interaction among young male dogs that I call "youth gangs," or "teenaged hoodlums."

Each new dog that comes through the gate is instantly evaluated by the gang as a potential partner in crime. If he's accepted into the gang, they all grin, race around a bit, and then get down the serioius business of male bonding: an hour or so of pretending to tear each other's throats out. These bloodless fights look real, but they don't sound like serious dog fights. There's too much laughing.

If the new dog arrival happens to be a female, the dogs in the youth gang leer so effectively that the crotch-grab is implicit.