Humor Processing Research Articles

Influence of emotional states on incongruity-resolution and nonsense humour processing.

Humour processing is complex and may be influenced by an individual's emotional state. This study explores the differences in incongruity-resolution and nonsense joke humour processing between three groups with different emotional states (positive, neutral and negative). Each group consisted of 32 participants. The positive and negative emotion groups were asked to elicit positive and negative emotions, respectively, through autobiographical recall. In contrast, the neutral emotion group was asked to answer questions unrelated to emotions. Participants were also asked to rate their emotional valence, arousal and conformity with the provided emotion words. Subsequently, they were directed to rate their humour appreciation, humour comprehension and level of surprise at the jokes. The results indicate that these variables interacted with the level of amusement derived from the two humour types. The positive emotion group perceived nonsense jokes as funnier than the negative emotion group, while the negative emotion group perceived nonsense jokes as less amusing than incongruity-resolution jokes. No significant difference was found between the three emotion groups in terms of humour comprehension and surprise at the jokes. The results deepen the understanding of the correlation between emotional states and processing of different humour types.

A Systemic Review of the Brain Mechanism of Humor Processing

As a universal linguistic phenomenon, humor has gradually become an interdisciplinary research topic. Domestic and international scholars have expanded the study of humor, yet there is a paucity of evaluations on the brain mechanisms underlying humor perception. This paper primarily introduces the concept of humor, the major theoretical frameworks of humor, and the key findings from domestic and international research on the neural mechanisms of humor. Furthermore, this paper synthesizes the existing issues in humor research in order to provide clues and guidance for future investigations of humor.

"Witzelsucht". On the introduction and meaning of the term by Hermann Oppenheim in 1890 and its distinction from "moria"

Hermann Oppenheim (1858-1919) was a German neurologist without an academic career, who in his productive period around 1900 made aname for himself during his lifetime as amajor player in the history of German neurology with his many contributions to multiple sclerosis, syphilis and the controversial study of traumatic neurosis; however, it is almost unknown that in 1890 he introduced the term "witzelsucht", which is still used internationally today. Moritz Jastrowitz dealt with behavioral abnormalities due to frontal brain injuries 1year earlier and used the term "moria" for aform of mental disorder associated with akind of childish behavior and inappropriate jocularity. Oppenheim was critical of this and differentiated his "witzelsucht" from this. With this term he wanted to describe humoristic feeble-mindedness in a much narrower sense, which stands in striking contrast to the usual symptoms in cases of cerebral tumors. Oppenheim recognized the frontal brain, particularly the right brain, to be an important functional unit for humorous behavior. Modern research has confirmed that the processing of humor requires a complex interaction of multiple brain regions. Damage to the right frontal lobe or to connecting structures can lead to the disorder "witzelsucht". Whether asimultaneous damage to the left hemisphere must be present or if this is dependent on the individual dominant hemisphere, needs further research.

The role of selenium in the functioning of immune system components and the incidence of allergies: a content analysis of recent literature

Selenium is an essential trace element. Adequate intake of selenium is necessary for optimal functioning of cellular and humoral processes in the body. Lack of selenium in the diet can lead to aggravation of infectious and allergic diseases and also increase the risk of tumor formation. This review article provides data on the metabolic pathways of selenium and its role in the immune system, as well as the occurrence of allergies and antitumor and antioxidant protection. In detail, the role of selenium is discussed in relation to the implementation of body antiviral defenses. Under conditions of selenium deficiency, numerous viral infections are linked to an unfavorable prognosis, and this article specifically considers the problem of myocarditis occurring during viral infections, summarizing data on the pathogenesis of the condition and possible connections with selenium deficiency. The results of content analysis demonstrate that selenium, participating in the synthesis of selenium-containing enzymes and selenoproteins, ensures the functioning and activity of innate and acquired immunity, antitumour and antioxidant defence, which indirectly affects the course of allergic diseases. Selenium deficiency increases the incidence of allergies, tumours and infections, especially viral infections. In case of viral infections, not only the course of immune reactions depends on sufficient amount of selenium in the organism, but also the possibility of increasing the virulence of the pathogen in case of selenium deficiency. In the case of a severe course of the disease, the main symptoms of infection may be joined by other, more serious manifestations, such as myocarditis. The antioxidant, immunostimulant and antiviral properties of selenium ensure its modifying role in the development of diseases and the percentage of fatalities. Rational consumption of selenium may be of great importance in the prevention, course and determination of outcomes of many diseases, including allergopathology.

Explicit and implicit abilities in humor processing in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

ABSTRACT Sociocognitive impairment is well known in the relapsing-remitting form of multiple sclerosis (RR-MS). The purpose of the present study was to assess explicit and implicit humor abilities in this population. Based on clinical observation and contrary to the current cognitive model, we hypothesized that implicit performances (happy facial expressions) would be better than explicit ones (humor judgment assessed by explicit humor comprehension, subjective feeling of amusement as a conscious appreciation of funniness, and verbal justifications of funniness). Twenty-five RR-MS patients and twenty-five healthy participants completed the tasks. Their face was filmed during humor ratings. Patients’ results suggest that 32% of them showed an impairment in explicit humor comprehension, with normal facial expressions. Both groups found great difficulty in justifying the cause of their amusement. All these results may suggest the existence of a supplementary implicit pathway in humor processing. The preservation of this implicit pathway may be advantageous for future remediation. Contrary to the current model, we found that the subjective feeling of amusement was preserved when comprehension was impaired. Further studies will be needed to clarify this component, and adjust the theoretical modeling.

Hypo- and hyper-activation in frontotemporal lobe during humor processing in patients with first episode schizophrenia

BackgroundPatients with schizophrenia present difficulties in humor recognition and appreciation, but the neural mechanism of these deficits remains unclear. This study aimed to elucidate neural substrates underlying humor processing in patients with first episode schizophrenia (FES). MethodsThis study recruited 40 patients with FES (illness duration ≤ 4 years) and 31 healthy controls matching for age, gender and education level. Participants completed a fMRI verbal humor processing paradigm comprising 96 stories, half for funny punch-line condition and the other half for unfunny condition. Participants were required to judge whether the story was funny or not. Signal detection theory (SDT) analysis was used to calculate d' and β values which represented sensitivity and inner criteria for humor signals respectively. The funny-unfunny contrast was analyzed to identify the brain regions related with humor processing. d' and β values were put into the imaging regression analysis. ResultsPatients with FES showed significantly lower hit rate and sensitivity of humor signals (d'). At the neural level, patients with FES hypo-activated in ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) while hyper-activated in middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and superior temporal gyrus (STG) compared to controls. In addition, activity in vmPFC and ACC was positively associated with d’ and β values, while activity in STG was positively associated with β values in the clinical group. ConclusionsPatients with FES exhibited decreased sensitivity to humor signals. Hypo-activation in frontal regions and hyper-activation in temporal regions were associated with the humor processing deficits.

Establishing the Roles of the Dorsal and Ventral Striatum in Humor Comprehension and Appreciation with fMRI.

Humor comprehension (i.e., getting a joke) and humor appreciation (i.e., enjoying a joke) are distinct, cognitively complex processes. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigations have identified several key cortical regions but have overlooked subcortical structures that have theoretical importance in humor processing. The dorsal striatum (DS) contributes to working memory, ambiguity processing, and cognitive flexibility, cognitive functions that are required to accurately recognize humorous stimuli. The ventral striatum (VS) is critical in reward processing and enjoyment. We hypothesized that the DS and VS play important roles in humor comprehension and appreciation, respectively. We investigated the engagement of these regions in these distinct processes using fMRI. Twenty-six healthy young male and female human adults completed two humor-elicitation tasks during a 3 tesla fMRI scan consisting of a traditional behavior-based joke task and a naturalistic audiovisual sitcom paradigm (i.e., Seinfeld viewing task). Across both humor-elicitation methods, whole-brain analyses revealed cortical activation in the inferior frontal gyrus, the middle frontal gyrus, and the middle temporal gyrus for humor comprehension, and the temporal cortex for humor appreciation. Additionally, with region of interest analyses, we specifically examined whether DS and VS activation correlated with these processes. Across both tasks, we demonstrated that humor comprehension implicates both the DS and the VS, whereas humor appreciation only engages the VS. These results establish the role of the DS in humor comprehension, which has been previously overlooked, and emphasize the role of the VS in humor processing more generally.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Humorous stimuli are processed by the brain in at least two distinct stages. First, humor comprehension involves understanding humorous intent through cognitive and problem-solving mechanisms. Second, humor appreciation involves enjoyment, mirth, and laughter in response to a joke. The roles of smaller subcortical brain regions in humor processing, such as the DS and VS, have been overlooked in previous investigations. However, these regions are involved in functions that support humor comprehension (e.g., working memory ambiguity resolution, and cognitive flexibility) and humor appreciation (e.g., reward processing, pleasure, and enjoyment). In this study, we used neuroimaging to demonstrate that the DS and VS play important roles in humor comprehension and appreciation, respectively, across two different humor-elicitation tasks.

Appreciation of Slapstick Humour and Expressivity in Response to Amusing Stimuli in Individuals with Williams Syndrome

ObjectivesPrevious studies on the comprehension and appreciation of humour in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) have only included complex types of humour that required complex cognitive abilities. Additionally, although individuals with WS have been described as having a bias towards positive emotions, no study has investigated their expressive responses to humour.MethodsThe present study examined basic humour processing skills, as well as expressive responses to simple humorous and non-humorous stimuli in individuals with WS (N = 8) compared to mental-age matched typically developing (TD) children (N = 9). Participants were shown short funny and non-funny excerpts of the movies “Ice Age” and “Madagascar” and were asked to rate their level of amusement. Their expressive responses, namely smiles and laughs, were coded and analysed.ResultsIndividuals with WS seem to be able to discriminate between humorous and non-humorous conditions and appreciate simple humorous content as much as TD individuals. As such, they are equally able to process simple types of humour as their mental-age matched counterparts. Additionally, and in line with their positivity bias, individuals with WS expressed more frequent and more intense laughter than the control group.ConclusionIndividuals with WS appreciate simple humour as much as TD individuals, and they seem to display a particularly high expressivity in response to humorous stimuli.

Loneliness, academic self-efficacy, and student engagement in the online learning environment: the role of humor in learning

This study investigated the impact of loneliness on academic self-efficacy (ASE) and student engagement in the context of remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, as a boundary condition, we examined the role of intermediate ASE in the relationship between loneliness, student engagement, and perceived humor in learning. A total of 367 undergraduate students from six universities in Indonesia completed an online questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Macro Process version 4 to test the moderating mediation model hypothesis. As expected, the study results show that loneliness is negatively related to ASE and student engagement. ASE is proven to affect student engagement positively; concurrently, it plays an intermediate role in the link between loneliness and student engagement. Finally, humor had a significant moderating effect on learning in the tested model. This study contributes to the existing literature on loneliness and student engagement by uncovering the intermediate role of ASE. Drawing on the social cognitive theory (SCT) and instructional humor processing theory (IHTP), we explored how perceived humor in learning moderates the relationships between loneliness, ASE, and student engagement.

Did you get the joke? Physiological, subjective and behavioral responses to mirth.

Mirth is elicited by the perception of humor, which requires the resolution of an incongruity in an unexpected and playful manner. Previous psychophysiological research using affective pictures is scarce, and did not elucidate the cognitive and affective components of the humor process. In this study, the passive viewing paradigm is applied to mirthful, incongruent, neutral and erotic pictures to characterize the emotional response of mirth. Physiological (zygomaticus major [ZM] activity, skin conductance response [SCR] and heart rate [HR]), behavioral (free viewing time) and subjective responses (mirthful ratings) were recorded from 63 participants. The presence of an inflection change in the ZM response and mirthfulness ratings were used as markers of humor comprehension. Participants showed the greatest ZM and HR in response to mirthful compared to incongruent, erotic and neutral pictures, as well as a stronger SCR response to mirthful compared to incongruent and neutral pictures. The overall results shed light on the temporal course of the humor process, suggesting that humor comprehension (cognitive component) occurred around 1000-1500 ms after picture onset, according to the ZM and SCR responses; and the humor appreciation stage (emotional component) occurred at around 3500 ms after stimulus onset, according to the HR and SCR changes. Moreover, marked interindividual variability was observed in the number of smiles, and in the pictures that provoked them. This points to the complexity of the humor process, and suggests the need to develop methods to elicit mirth and elucidate the factors potentially underlying individual differences in humor.

Humor comprehension and appreciation: an analysis of Italian jokes

Abstract Humor comprehension and appreciation are two basic domains of humor research and central stages in humor processing. In the present study, 238 Italian adults rated 20 jokes to investigate how a humor comprehension task influences subsequent funniness ratings. Additionally, the relationships between humor comprehension and funniness were investigated for the total set of jokes, for individual jokes, and for jokes with different contents (neutral or tendentious) and difficulty (elementary or advanced). Comparing participants who performed only the funniness ratings with participants who first performed a humor comprehension task showed that funniness scores were reduced in the humor comprehension condition. Humor comprehension and funniness were positively related at the level of individual jokes, while these effects were less pronounced in the analyses across jokes. Overall, advanced-neutral jokes showed the most pronounced differences. The study thus showed that the level of analysis (individual jokes vs. aggregating across jokes), content and difficulty of jokes should be taken into account when relating humor comprehension and appreciation. Additionally, it should be considered that humor comprehension tasks can bias humor appreciation ratings. Hence, the measurement and interplay between these humor domains deserves more attention in research.

Is teacher humor an asset in classroom management? Examining its association with students’ well-being, sense of school belonging, and engagement

This study used the instructional humor processing theory to test how different humor subtypes employed by teachers (course-related, course-unrelated, self-disparaging, other-disparaging) relate to students’ well-being, sense of belonging, and engagement. The participants comprised 395 students (boys = 106; girls = 270; other = 8; NA = 11) (secondary school students = 291; primary school students = 97, NA = 7) from five public school boards located in rural areas, and one private secondary school situated in an urban area (Mage = 14.11) with a proportion of 93% speaking French at home. Correlational and structural equation modeling methods were used to analyze these relationships. Results showed that only humor related to course content (positive association) and other-disparaging humor (negative association) were significantly associated with the sense of belonging, which, in turn, was positively associated with a cognitive, affective, and behavioral engagement. Results also showed that only course-related humor (positive association) and unrelated humor (negative association) were significantly associated with students’ emotional well-being, which, in turn, was positively associated with cognitive and affective engagement. As far as this study is concerned, humor in the classroom should be course-related when it comes to supporting students’ emotional well-being, sense of belonging, and engagement.

Verification of the Four-Stage Model of Humor Processing: Evidence from an fMRI Study by Three-Element Verbal Jokes.

The four-stage model comprises the expectation, incongruity, resolution, and elaboration stages of humor processing. In previous studies, most researchers used two-element jokes (setup and punch line) as stimuli, based on experimental methods, to explore the humor process. By contrast, the present study used a humor corpus with the novelty of three-element verbal jokes to perform direct separation from the material and clarify the humor processes. In this study, we used three-element verbal jokes and nonjokes, and we conducted a repeated-measures analysis of variance with a 3 × 2 two-way within-subject design. In humor processing, the posterior insula and middle frontal gyrus were mainly activated in the expectation; the middle temporal gyrus and the medial frontal gyrus in the incongruity; the inferior frontal gyri, superior frontal gyrus, and inferior parietal lobule in the resolution; and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, anterior insula, nucleus accumbens, and midbrain in the elaboration. The contributions of this study lie in its use of a humor corpus with the novelty of self-compiled three-element jokes, which not only successfully verified the models established in previous studies but added the expectation to the model; thus, this study separated the expectation and incongruity processes, making humor processing more complete.

Amygdala-frontoparietal effective connectivity in creativity and humor processing.

Although both creativity and humor elicit experiences of surprise followed by appreciation, it remains unknown whether shared or distinct patterns of effective connectivity are involved in their processing. The present fMRI study used dynamic causal modeling and parametrical empirical Bayes analysis to examine the effective connectivity between the amygdala and frontoparietal network during two-stage creativity and humor processing. We examined processing during the setup and punch line stages for creativity and humor, including typical forms (alternate uses for creativity and incongruity-resolution humor), atypical forms (aesthetic uses for creativity and nonsense humor), and baseline forms. Our focus was on themesolimbic pathway during the punch line stage. We found that the amygdala plays a key role in expectation violation and appreciation. Broadly, amygdala-to-IFG connectivity was important for evaluating typical and atypical forms of both creativity and humor, while amygdala-to-precuneus connectivity was involved in evaluating typical forms. Amygdala-to-IFG connectivity was involved in the expectation violation to resolution stage of processing for typical and atypical forms of creativity and humor. Amygdala-to-precuneus connectivity was involved in processing the novelty and usefulness of typical forms of creativity (alternate uses) and understanding others' intentions in typical forms of humor (incongruity-resolution). Interestingly, VTA-to-amygdala connectivity was involved in processing the appreciation of both typical (incongruity-resolution humor) and atypical (nonsense humor) forms of humor while amygdala-to-VTA connectivity was involved in processing the appreciation of atypical (aesthetic uses) forms of creativity. Altogether, these findings suggest that the amygdala and frontoparietal circuitry are critical for creativity and humor processing.

Influence of instructor humor on learning engagement in the online learning environment

Using instructional humor processing theory, in an online learning setting we explored the relationships between instructor humor types as perceived by students and the students' learning engagement. This study recruited 1,829 participants. The results revealed the following: (a) Course-related, courseunrelated, self-disparaging, and aggressive instructor humor were associated with behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement; (b) positive emotions mediated the relationships between course-related, course-unrelated, and aggressive instructor humor styles and students' behavioral and cognitive engagement; (c) negative emotions mediated the links between all four types of instructor humor, and behavioral and cognitive engagement. This study is the first to extend the theoretical model of instructional humor styles to the online learning environment, verifying the adaptability of the theory to China.

Humor experience facilitates ongoing cognitive tasks: Evidence from pun comprehension.

Empirical findings on embodied cognition have shown that bodily states (e.g., bodily postures and affective states) can influence how people appreciate humor. A case in point is that participants were reported to read pleasant sentences faster than the unpleasant controls when their muscles responsible for smiling were activated. However, little research has examined whether the feeling of amusement derived from humor processing like pun comprehension can exert a backward influence on ongoing cognitive tasks. In the present study, the participants' eye movements were tracked while they rated the comprehensibility of humorous sentences (homophone puns) and two types of unfunny control sentences (congruent and incongruent). Fixation measures showed an advantage in the critical homophone region for the congruent controls relative to the homophone puns; however, this pattern was reversed in terms of total sentence reading time. In addition, the humor rating scores acquired after the eye-tracking experiment were found negatively correlated to the overall sentence reading time, suggesting that the greater amusement the participant experienced the faster they would finish the rating task. Taken together, the current results indicate that the positive affect derived from humor can in turn provide immediate feedback to the cognitive system, which enhances text comprehension. As a result, the current finding provides more empirical evidence for the exploration of the interaction between the body and cognition.

A review on Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is a kind of inflammatory neuropathy that has a gradual start and symmetrical sensory involvement. However, there are several clinical variances, suggesting that CIDP may represent a spectrum of linked disorders rather than a single disease entity. While the prevailing idea of CIDP pathogenesis is that cell-mediated and humoral processes interact in an abnormal immune response to damage peripheral neurons, the proportional roles of T cell and autoantibody responses are yet unknown. T cell responses to specified myelin antigens are responsible in animal models of spontaneous inflammatory neuropathy. Antibodies to Schwann cell, compact myelin, and nodal antigens have been found in different human inflammatory neuropathies. The roles of the cellular and humoral immune systems in the development of CIDP are discussed in this review. It is believed that, in the future, the identification of clinical phenotypes and the underlying disease processes would aid in the development of diagnostic and therapy options for CIDP.

Telejornalismo, infotenimento e sensacionalismo: uma análise do Programa Alerta Nacional da Rede TV!

Abstract This paper aims to analyze the National Alert program to understand how the spectacularization of news about crime interferes in the public’s relationship with conventional professional journalism. The study was concatenated in four parts: observation of the content and profile of viewers; public analysis based on opinion polls; interview with the presenter of the National Alert program; and the analysis of the construction of belonging based on Hall’s et al. (1980) coding-decoding model. It was concluded that the Programa Alerta Nacional brings with it several characteristic elements of political ideologization and influence on its viewers, based on a discourse that reflects an approach that denotes the perception of social behavior imbued with a process of humor based on the construction of the bond receptive communicational.

The Psychology of Comedy

The Psychology of Comedy

Humor at work that works: A multi-level examination of when and why leader humor promotes employee creativity.

Although the role of leadership in fostering employee creativity has been extensively studied, it is still unclear whether and how leader humor affects employee creativity. Drawing upon cultural representation theory (CRT), we examined creative self-efficacy as a mediator and traditionality as a situational factor in the relationship between leader humor and employee creativity by analyzing a sample of 306 employees and 88 leaders (paired data) collected through survey questionnaire from firms based in Hubei Province, China, covering the industries of automobile, IT, and medicine. Following the multi-level examination, leader humor was positively related to employee creativity, and creative self-efficacy was found to mediate the impact of leader humor on employee creativity. Furthermore, traditionality moderated the effect of leader humor on creative self-efficacy, as well as the indirect effect of leader humor on employee creativity through creative self-efficacy. This study provides a social psychological explanation for the association between humor and employee creativity, deepens the current understanding of the influence process of leader humor. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed at the end alongside limitations and recommendations for future research.