Cognitive humor processing: Different logical mechanisms in nonverbal cartoons—an fMRI study

Abstract

Although recent fMRI studies on humor have begun to elucidate cognitive and affective neural correlates, they weren't able to distinguish between different logical mechanisms or steps of humor processing, i.e., the detection of an incongruity and its resolution. This fMRI study aimed to focus in more detail on cognitive humor processing. In order to investigate pure incongruity resolution without preprocessing steps, nonverbal cartoons differing in their logical mechanisms were contrasted with nonhumorous pictures containing an irresolvable incongruity. The logical mechanisms were: (1) visual puns (visual resemblance, PUNs); (2) semantic cartoons (pure semantic relationships, SEMs); and (3) Theory of Mind cartoons (which require additionally mentalizing abilities, TOMs). Thirty cartoons from each condition were presented to 17 healthy subjects while acquiring fMR images. The results reveal a left-sided network involved in pure incongruity resolution: e.g., temporo-parietal junction, inferior frontal gyrus and ventromedian prefrontal cortex. These areas are also involved in processing of SEMs, whereas PUNs show more activation in the extrastriate cortex and TOMs show more activation in socalled mentalizing areas. Processing of pictures containing an irresolvable incongruity evokes activation in the rostral cingulate zone, which might reflect error processing. We conclude that cognitive processing of different logical mechanisms depends on separate neural networks.

Dysregulation between emotion and theory of mind networks in borderline personality disorder

“…All pictures were low in aggressive, violent, and sexual content and were validated by use in previous studies (Samson et al, 2008(Samson et al, , 2009). To investigate brain activity during resting state trials, these cartoon trials were interleaved with rest events (NULL) during which participants observed a blank screen.…”

“…It has recently been shown that ToM cartoons (which require additional mentalising skills in order to be understood -the ability to recognise that one character portrayed in the cartoon has a false beliefrequire more involvement of so-called 'mentalising areas' [e.g., medial prefrontal cortex, temporo-parietal junction (TPJ)] in contrast to cartoons that can be understood without taking the characters' false beliefs into account (Samson et al, 2008(Samson et al, , 2009). While there is a good understanding on which regions are activated during ToM processes, no study has investigated the functional connectivity during ToM processing in BPD patients compared with controls.…”

Stimulus Characteristics Affect Humor Processing in Individuals with Asperger Syndrome

“…LMs are of particular interest in the present study. Previous studies (Samson et al 2008;Samson 2009) showed that different LMs have different cognitive requirements which were shown to influence neural activation patterns. Visual puns (PUN, which are based on one visual element simultaneously evoking two meanings) were shown to evoke more activation in the visual cortex whereas TOM cartoons (TOM, they require additional mentalizing skills in order to be understood: it has to be recognized that one character portrayed in the cartoon has a false mental state) require more involvement of so-called ''mentalizing areas'' [e.g., medial prefrontal cortex, temporo-parietal junction (TPJ)].…”

Trait cheerfulness modulates BOLD response in lateral cortical but not limbic brain areas—A pilot fMRI study

“…It is located at the end of the superior temporal sulcus and is approximately equivalent to Brodmann´s area 19. It has also been reported to be activated in a recent fmri study on processing of noverbal cartoons [35]. We had no a-priori hypothesis regarding the fasciculus occipito-frontalis and anterior cingulate, where a negative correlation was found .…”

“…Notably, some of the regions found to be activated in these studies on personality traits were also found to be activated in brain imaging studies on humor appreciation. A number of studies have investigated the neural correlates of humor appreciation with functional magnetic resonance [3,13,14,22,24,25,35,39,43] and PET [17] (see [41] and [43] for an overview). The regions shown to be activated during humor appreciation in these studies included both cortical regions (such as the left inferior frontal gyrus [25,43], medial frontal [13], anterior [13,14,43] and posterior temporal [13,14,35] gyri) as well as subcortical nuclei (such as the caudate [14] and nucleus accumbens [17]) and limbic structures (such as the hippocampus [14] or amygdalae [24]).…”