Patient C- Uncontrolled Mechanism of Laughing/ Crying

Damisio studied Patient C in collaboration with Josef Parvizi and Steven Anderson. When patient C suffered a small a stroke affecting his brain stem he was found to be lucky by the doctor that treated him as he was not left with major disabilities. However, patient C would burst into crying or laughter for no reason. For example, patient C in the middle of a serious conversations about finances would burst into laughter. As a result of damage within the neural system constituted by nuclei in the brain stem and cerebellum, patient C is engaging in these emotions without a "mental cause". The mechanism that controls laughter and crying is described as a "mystery" until patient C was studied. Nuclei within the pons and in the cerebellum play a role in control mechanism.

Control mechanism--> Within brain stem, system of nuclei/pathways can be switched on to give rise to laughter/crying. Another system in the cerebellum modulates laughter/crying

Within normal circumstances these systems can be influenced by activity in the cerebral cortex- on given occasions stimulus will give weaker or stronger laughter. However, system can influence cerebral cortex itself.