What do neurons use to talk to each other? A cellular phone.
Get it? Did you LOL (laugh-out-loud?) Did you feel your brain releasing serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins? Because it totally did.
All the feel good brain chemicals were aplenty last fall when we had comedian Susan Stewart share her inspiring comedy at our Girlfriend’s Guide to Mental Health event.
We invited her back to visit our Brain Imaging Centre and be our special guest at our year in review event the evening of June 22.
Stewart was curious about where humour lives in the brain. She asked two questions: Does a lack of humour and taking things too seriously trigger mental illness? Or, does mental illness rob us of our sense of humour?
“I look back on the path behind me and I say yes to both scenarios,” she said to our year in review audience.
Stewart laughs at every opportunity, but what some may not know about her is that she also lives with depression and anxiety. She embraces her experiences with mental illness and uses it as material for her comedy shows and books, touring the nation and spreading her positive message.
“So much of my change came from taking one foot and placing it from the past into the present and the other from the future into the present. Many of our struggles come from living in the past or the future,” said Stewart of her path to wellness.
While laughter isn’t a cure for mental illness, seeing the humour in things “frees us and helps us connect to the present moment,” she explained in her talk.
Dr. Zul Merali, former president and CEO of The Royal’s Institute for Mental Health Research, joined Stewart on stage for a discussion. So, where does humour live in the brain? Well, that depends what side of the joke you’re on, among other things.
“When you are telling a joke, primarily the front area of the brain lights up. This is where information is processed and your cognition kicks in,” Dr. Merali explained, “On the flip side, when you are laughing at a joke, primarily we see the pleasure centres light up.”
Humour and laughter are good for our wellbeing, and that’s no joke.
“Science is encouraging us to lighten up; it wants us to lighten up,” says Stewart.
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Comedian Susan Stewart with Dr. Zul Merali, Former President & CEO, The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research, affiliated with the University of Ottawa
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