阅读理解。

　　Why laughter matters

　　Although most people believe that laughter is one of the nature's great treatments for a whole range of mental and physical diseases, it is still a serious scientific subject that researchers are trying to figure out.

　　“Laughter above all else is a social thing，” says Baltimore neuroscientist, Robert Provine, who has studied laughter for decades. “All laughter groups laugh ‘hahaha’ basically the same way. Whether you speak Mandarin, French or English, everyone will understand laughter. There is a pattern generator(发生器) in our brain that produces this sound.”

　　Laughing is our first way of communicating. Babies laugh long before they speak. No one teaches them how to laugh. They just do. People may laugh at a prank(恶作剧) on April Fools' Day. But surprisingly, only 10 to 15 percent of laughter is the result of someone making a joke. Laughter is mostly about social responses rather than to a joke. Deaf people laugh without hearing and people on cell phones laugh without seeing, showing that laughter isn't dependent on single sense but on social interactions.

　　And laughter is not just a thing of people. Chimps tickle(挠痒) each other and even laugh when another chimp pretends to tickle them.

　　Jaak Panksepp, a Bowling Green University Psychology professor, studies rats that laugh when he tickles them. It turns out rats love to be tickled—they return again and again to the hands of researchers tickling them.

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