How is it that laughing gas (also called nitrous oxide) causes you to laugh?

Answer 1

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a dissociative that can cause analgesia, euphoria, dizziness, flanging of sound, and, in some cases, slight hallucinations including dissociation, and mild aphrodisiac effect.

ITs THE FEELING OF EUPHORIA THAT MAKES YOU LAUGH.

Answer 2

I came looking for the answer to your question. After reading all the 'answers' I found most, if not all, gave effects of laughing gas and not 'how' it accomplishes those affects.

As far as I was ever able to find out the mechanism of action for nitrous oxide is still not fully understood.

No one really knows why or how just what.

Answer 3

Nitrous oxide, also known as dinitrogen oxide or dinitrogen monoxide, is a chemical compound with chemical formula N2O. Under room conditions, it is a colourless non-inflammable gas, with a pleasant, slightly-sweet odor. It is used in surgery and dentistry for its anaesthetic and analgesic effects, where it is commonly known as laughing gas due to the euphoric effects of inhaling it. However feeling euphoric and laughing are two different things.
Nitrous oxide has very distinct characteristics and when inhaled, nitrous produces a variety of physical effects including:

Disorientation Fixated vision Throbbing or pulsating auditory hallucinations Similarly pulsating visual hallucinations Increased pain threshold Deeper mental connections
The physiological effects of using nitrous oxide last approximately a minute for a lungful of nitrous and then mainly dissipate. Some residual effects may last up to several minutes later. Nitrous gas works by infusing into the membranes of the body and produces an anesthetic effect.

Joseph Priestly discovered nitrous oxide. In 1772 he reported the isolation of a mixture of nitrogen oxides that he called dephlogisticated nitrous air, later changed to nitrous oxide. He did several experiments with the gas but never inhaled it.

--- When were the medical uses discovered?
Less than a decade after Joseph Priestly discovered nitrous oxide, the Pneumatic Institution (a small medical facility in Bristol England) conducted the first tests into the mind altering qualities of the drug in the 1780's.

One of the properties noted was that nitrous oxide was an analgesic (it decreased the sensation of pain in most users). However, it would be several decades before the medical benefits of nitrous oxide were realized. In the meantime, nitrous was a chemical looking for a use.

Various scientists and others were doing experiments with the gas and its use as a recreational drug spread. In the 1840's nitrous oxide was introduced to the USA. By that time, it was known as laughing gas because of the way people acted under its influence. In the US, side show entertainers gave laughing gas demonstrations.

During one of these demonstrations a man inhaled some of the gas and began to ram his leg into a heavy piece of furniture, unaware of the damage done to his leg, the man continued to moving around the stage until the effects of the gas wore off. After the gas wore off, the man became aware of the damage that had done to his leg.

There happened to be a dentist by the name of Horace Wells at the demonstration. He realized the potential for laughing gas in dentistry and began to use it on patients, with excellent results. Wells became a pioneer of surgical anesthesia but started doing some nitrous oxide experiments on himself.


When inhaled, nitrous oxide can cause:

a sense of well being
a disoriented feeling
deeper mental thoughts
more tolerance to pain
possible increase in libido
possible visual hallucinations
throbbing or pulsating audible hallucinations

it is because of these effects that nitrious oxide got the label "laughing gas".

Answer 4

I don't think it does, I've seen people having it and they didn't laugh, they said it just made them really trippy for about a minute

Answer 5

it causes you to lower your inhibitions .

Answer 6

find it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_nitrous_oxide_on_the_body