Researching Laughter: Tickle a Rat and See What Happens

[BobG]

I'd love going to parties if I did this kind of research.

What do you do for a living?

I tickle rats. They seem to enjoy it.

http://www.freesciencelectures.com/video/rats-laugh-when-you-tickle-them/
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2008/02/22

Actually, the entire Radio Lab show about laughter is pretty interesting. The segment on laughing rats starts about 8 minutes in.

 

[turbo]

Ferrets love being tickled too. Their laughter is audible - it's a repetitive chuckle that sounds kind of like "dook, dook". Often, they would squirm away only to run back and play keep-away until I caught them and tickled them some more. When we got slippery Pergo flooring in the living room, the tickling and keep-away morphed into "ferret-bowling".

 

[BobG]

All I know is that laughter can be a ... well, hmmmmm ...

 

[rootX]

Rats behave like dogs?

I am sure only dogs would play like that (not cats)

 

[Moonbear]

I'm still not sure how they decided it's laughter and not just some other form of vocalization? How do they know it tickled and the vocalization wasn't more of a, "Ooh, yeah baby, that's the spot! Ooh, yeah, keep rubbing there! Oh, that feels so good! ...Hey, where are you going? Come back! Rub me again!"

 

[turbo]

I'm still not sure how they decided it's laughter and not just some other form of vocalization? How do they know it tickled and the vocalization wasn't more of a, "Ooh, yeah baby, that's the spot! Ooh, yeah, keep rubbing there! Oh, that feels so good! ...Hey, where are you going? Come back! Rub me again!"

Non-scientific interpretation, but the ferret laughs seemed to be reflexive, and they were pretty sensitive (to tickling) on their rib-cages, especially up near their fore-legs.

 

[BobG]

All I know is that laughter can be a ... well, hmmmmm ...

A whopping 6 minutes and 41 seconds of a girl watching the "Dad at the Comedy Barn video:


My God, this is worse than Tanzanyika 1962!

 

[rootX]

A whopping 6 minutes and 41 seconds of a girl watching the "Dad at the Comedy Barn video:


My God, this is worse than Tanzanyika 1962!

I thought she going to die.

I think too much laughing can cause death.

 

[binzing]

I had a rat, never got him to laugh, but he was way cool. Super smart. He'd hold banana chips in his paws and eat them back and forth across like a piece of watermelon. He was also trained to climb up the back of your shirt and sit on your shoulder.

 

[BobG]

I had a rat, never got him to laugh, but he was way cool. Super smart. He'd hold banana chips in his paws and eat them back and forth across like a piece of watermelon. He was also trained to climb up the back of your shirt and sit on your shoulder.

How do you know? Rats laugh at 50 kHz and the range of human hearing only goes up to 20 kHz (if you're young - adults can't hear high frequencies).

 

[binzing]

Then perhaps he did