Toward a Cognitive and Social Neuroscience of Humor Processing

Abstract

Humor plays a key role in social interaction, and yet the topic has received surprisingly little attention in cognitive and social neuroscience. The few published lesion and functional imaging studies have been based on incongruity resolution theory, which assumes that humor results from a simple two-stage process (i.e., the detection of incongruity followed by its resolution). However, the available evidence is inconclusive. A more comprehensive account of the cognitive and affective abilities that are involved is necessary, and some suggestions are outlined here.Despite its role in social interaction, the topic of humor has received surprisingly little attention in the field of cognitive neuroscience. Humor potentially involves both expressive abilities involved in the generation of humorous stimuli, and receptive abilities involved in comprehension and appreciation. A clear relationship between these factors is, however, far from being established. The majority of studies investigating the neural basis of humor processing have been based on the most common humor theory, incongruity resolution (Suls, 1972), which proposes that humor comprehension involves a two-stage process. Despite the relatively large database referring to the two stages, the nature of 553

Executive function, mentalizing and humor in major depression

“…The cognitive component of humor refers to the comprehension of humorous stimuli, whereas the affective component involves appreciation of the stimuli. The need for such a separation is also highlighted in recent investigations (Uekermann et al, 2007a).…”

Finding the Fun in Daily Occupation: An Investigation of Humor

“…Humor can be explored through detection, interpretation, generation, and appreciation (Meyer et al, 2007;Uekermann, Daum, & Channon, 2007), thus is understood to have cognitive and affective components in addition to the motoric component of laughter (Moran, Wig, Adams, Janata, & Kelley, 2004;Takeda et al, 2010). The detection and interpretation of semantic or linguistic humor involves the systematic understanding and resolving of the ambiguity present between what is expected and the subsequent outcome (Moran et al, 2004).…”

Social cognition in alcoholism

“…The results from functional neuroimaging and lesion studies have suggested that the underlying neuronal network includes the medial prefrontal and temporal cortex (12). Humor potentially involves expressive abilities involved in the generation of humorous stimuli, as well as receptive abilities related to the comprehension and appreciation of humorous stimuli (13). The Incongruity Resolution Theory proposes two stages of humor processing (13).…”

“…Humor potentially involves expressive abilities involved in the generation of humorous stimuli, as well as receptive abilities related to the comprehension and appreciation of humorous stimuli (13). The Incongruity Resolution Theory proposes two stages of humor processing (13). The first stage (incongruity detection) refers to the perception of an incongruent element.…”