Abstract

Laughter has been studied by both philosophers and neuroscientists, yet the possible bridges between these two fronts of investigation is little explored. Bergson theorized about laughter and argued about its central social role. Human laughter, for Bergson, needs a social echo and brings malleability to social rigidity. We laugh, for instance, at what is mechanical where there should be flexibility. Critchley, a contemporary philosopher, agrees with Bergson and adds that humor also can change our views on social structures and situations. Based on these philosophical theories on humor and recent methodological advances in functional connectivity dynamics in neuroimaging, we advance an hypothesis for the relations between laughter, cognitive flexibility and brain metastability. Laughter can be interpreted as a social behavior that reframes the interaction context and modulates individuals brain dynamics instantiating cognitive flexibility. Finally, alongside curiosity, we argue that laughter is not only a subject but a tool to advancing neuroscience.