Brain activation during sight gags and language-dependent humor.
نویسندگان
چکیده
Humor is a hallmark of human discourse. People use it to relieve stress and to facilitate social bonding, as well as for pure enjoyment in the absence of any apparent adaptive value. Although recent studies have revealed that humor acts as an intrinsic reward, which explains why people actively seek to experience and create humor, few have addressed the cognitive aspects of humor. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to differentiate brain activity induced by the hedonic similarities and cognitive differences inherent in 2 kinds of humor: visual humor (sight gags) and language-based humor. Our findings indicate that the brain networks recruited during a humorous experience differ according to the type of humor being processed, with high-level visual areas activated during visual humor and classic language areas activated during language-dependent humor. Our results additionally highlight a common network activated by both types of humor that includes the amygdalar and midbrain regions, which presumably reflect the euphoric component of humor. Furthermore, we found that humor activates anterior cingulate cortex and frontoinsular cortex, 2 regions in the brain that are known to have phylogenetically recent neuronal circuitry. These results suggest that humor may have coevolved with another cognitive specialization of the great apes and humans: the ability to navigate through a shifting and complex social space.
منابع مشابه
Sex differences in brain activation elicited by humor.
With recent investigation beginning to reveal the cortical and subcortical neuroanatomical correlates of humor appreciation, the present event-related functional MRI (fMRI) study was designed to elucidate sex-specific recruitment of these humor related networks. Twenty healthy subjects (10 females) underwent fMRI scanning while subjectively rating 70 verbal and nonverbal achromatic cartoons as ...
متن کاملThe Use of Educational Humor in the Process of Learning and Teaching: A Special Facilitator for Second Language Learners
The Use of Educational Humor in the Process of Learning and Teaching: A Special Facilitator for Second Language Learners A. Zeyaa'ee Mehr, Ph.D. Research on educational humor during the past two decades demonstrates both the role and the impact of humor on the processes of learning and teaching, especially in the area of second/foreign language learning. There are a number of theories...
متن کاملUsing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore brain function: cortical representations of language critical areas
Pre-operative determination of the dominant hemisphere for speech and speech associated sensory and motor regions has been of great interest for the neurological surgeons. This dilemma has been of at most importance, but difficult to achieve, requiring either invasive (Wada test) or non-invasive methods (Brain Mapping). In the present study we have employed functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging...
متن کاملUsing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore brain function: cortical representations of language critical areas
Pre-operative determination of the dominant hemisphere for speech and speech associated sensory and motor regions has been of great interest for the neurological surgeons. This dilemma has been of at most importance, but difficult to achieve, requiring either invasive (Wada test) or non-invasive methods (Brain Mapping). In the present study we have employed functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging...
متن کاملGetting the Joke: Insight during Humor Comprehension – Evidence from an fMRI Study
As a high-level cognitive activity, humor comprehension requires incongruity detection and incongruity resolution, which then elicits an insight moment. The purpose of the study was to explore the neural basis of humor comprehension, particularly the moment of insight, by using both characters and language-free cartoons in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. The results showed that i...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Cerebral cortex
دوره 17 2 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2007