WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Could Neanderthals Laugh?

0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:07.960
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff, Lauren

0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:11.559
<v Speaker 1>vogel Bomb here with another classic episode for you. In

0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:14.360
<v Speaker 1>this one, we look into a curious question about our

0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:21.200
<v Speaker 1>hominid cousins, the Neanderthals. Could they laugh? Hey brain Stuff,

0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:25.160
<v Speaker 1>Lauren vogel Bomb here For millennia, humans and Neanderthals or

0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:29.360
<v Speaker 1>Neanderthals if you prefer coexisted in Europe and Eurasia. You've

0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:32.400
<v Speaker 1>probably heard about it because apparently they all had sex,

0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.040
<v Speaker 1>and now you might have around two percent Neanderthal DNA

0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:38.519
<v Speaker 1>in your genome. It's a whole thing. So we know

0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.680
<v Speaker 1>there might have been some Neanderthal slash modern human romance.

0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:45.760
<v Speaker 1>But did they have any laughs together? Well, that mostly

0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:49.840
<v Speaker 1>depends on whether Neanderthals could laugh. It's a tricky question, though,

0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:53.440
<v Speaker 1>because what would Neanderthals have laughed at. We modern humans

0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:55.880
<v Speaker 1>laugh at all sorts of things. Depending on who you are.

0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:58.760
<v Speaker 1>It's equally possible to go fall at kittens playing as

0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.520
<v Speaker 1>it is to giggle over an about chemical engineering, if

0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:04.600
<v Speaker 1>that's what you're into. We know even less about Neanderthal

0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:07.480
<v Speaker 1>theory of mind than we do about our own, but

0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:10.720
<v Speaker 1>there's evidence that the idea that they were intellectually inferior

0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:14.440
<v Speaker 1>to modern humans is bogus, and though we don't rightly

0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:16.920
<v Speaker 1>know what would have tickled them, a research on the

0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.360
<v Speaker 1>evolution of laughter supports the idea that Neanderthals were most

0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:24.560
<v Speaker 1>likely air to a glorious legacy of chuckles. That's because

0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:28.039
<v Speaker 1>other great apes laugh. In fact, laughter in our phylogenetic

0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:30.679
<v Speaker 1>corner of the world is estimated to have evolved between

0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:34.640
<v Speaker 1>ten and sixteen million years ago. It most likely evolved

0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:37.360
<v Speaker 1>from the labored breathing that happens when you're playing or

0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:41.520
<v Speaker 1>being tickled. Spontaneous laughter is something we all do within

0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:44.080
<v Speaker 1>the first couple months of life, even in babies born

0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:47.200
<v Speaker 1>deaf or blind. The main goal of laughter seems to

0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:51.240
<v Speaker 1>be to create and maintain social bonds. We know Neanderthals

0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:54.160
<v Speaker 1>lived in small family groups, so although they might not

0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.360
<v Speaker 1>have needed to have the social smarts to yucket up

0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:59.680
<v Speaker 1>at a comedy club, given their lifestyle, laughter probably would

0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:01.880
<v Speaker 1>have been beneficial to them, just as it is to

0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:05.639
<v Speaker 1>us or a chimpanzee. But a lot goes into laughter,

0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:08.399
<v Speaker 1>and the question of whether or not Neanderthals could laugh

0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:10.920
<v Speaker 1>has two parts, the first having to do with the

0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.960
<v Speaker 1>ability of the Neanderthal voice to produce the sound, and

0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:16.480
<v Speaker 1>the second with whether or not they have the cognitive

0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:20.440
<v Speaker 1>ability to find things funny. According to doctor Philip Lieberman,

0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.160
<v Speaker 1>Professor Emeritus in the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological

0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:28.280
<v Speaker 1>Sciences at Brown College, Neanderthals definitely had all the vocal

0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:33.000
<v Speaker 1>equipment required to laugh. Neanderthals had a vocal setup very

0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:36.680
<v Speaker 1>similar to humans, a larynx or voice box, supported by

0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:41.280
<v Speaker 1>a delicate horseshoe shaped bone called the hyoid. Lieberman explained,

0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:45.120
<v Speaker 1>the larynx produces acoustic energy that causes the vocal chords

0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.880
<v Speaker 1>of the larynx to open and close, and the super

0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:51.079
<v Speaker 1>laryngeal vocal tract. The space between the lips and the larynx,

0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:53.680
<v Speaker 1>changes shape with movement in the lips, tongue, and jaw

0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:56.919
<v Speaker 1>to make a kind of malleable organ pipe that helps

0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.520
<v Speaker 1>us make vowel and constant sounds. We share all this

0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.520
<v Speaker 1>vocal equipment with Neanderthals, so it stands to reason that

0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:05.799
<v Speaker 1>their laugh would be similar to our own. The only

0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.920
<v Speaker 1>difference of opinion among researchers here centers around whether the

0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:11.760
<v Speaker 1>Neanderthal's speaking voice was lower or higher than that of

0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.840
<v Speaker 1>a modern human. So with that settled, the next big

0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:18.800
<v Speaker 1>question is whether Neanderthals had the ability to find things

0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:22.280
<v Speaker 1>funny enough to laugh at them. According to Lieberman and

0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:27.280
<v Speaker 1>some recent research, it's very likely, he said. Epigenetic evidence

0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:31.120
<v Speaker 1>now shows that Neanderthal brains could execute complex motor acts.

0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:34.760
<v Speaker 1>This means that Neanderthals could talk and had language. As

0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:37.400
<v Speaker 1>long as their brains could control the complex gestures that

0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:47.760
<v Speaker 1>human speech entails, they definitely could have laughed. Today's episode

0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.480
<v Speaker 1>is based on the article Yes Neanderthals could laugh on

0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:53.800
<v Speaker 1>how Stuffworks dot Com, written by Jesslyn Shields. Brain Stuff

0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.320
<v Speaker 1>is production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks

0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.160
<v Speaker 1>dot Com and is produced by Tyler Laying. For more

0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:03.040
<v Speaker 1>podcasts heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:04.840
<v Speaker 1>wherever you listen to your favorite shows.