Cargando…

Neural Correlates of Hostile Jokes: Cognitive and Motivational Processes in Humor Appreciation

Hostile jokes (HJs) provide aggressive catharsis and a feeling of superiority. Behavioral research has found that HJs are perceived as funnier than non-hostile jokes (NJs). The purpose of the present study was to identify the neural correlates of the interaction between type and humor by comparing H...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Chan, Yu-Chen, Liao, Yi-Jun, Tu, Cheng-Hao, Chen, Hsueh-Chih
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5083847/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27840604
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00527
_version_ 1782463294854922240
author Chan, Yu-Chen
Liao, Yi-Jun
Tu, Cheng-Hao
Chen, Hsueh-Chih
author_facet Chan, Yu-Chen
Liao, Yi-Jun
Tu, Cheng-Hao
Chen, Hsueh-Chih
author_sort Chan, Yu-Chen
collection PubMed
description Hostile jokes (HJs) provide aggressive catharsis and a feeling of superiority. Behavioral research has found that HJs are perceived as funnier than non-hostile jokes (NJs). The purpose of the present study was to identify the neural correlates of the interaction between type and humor by comparing HJs, NJs, and their corresponding hostile sentences (HSs) and non-hostile sentences (NSs). HJs primarily showed activation in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and midbrain compared with the corresponding hostile baseline. Conversely, NJs primarily revealed activation in the ventromedial PFC (vmPFC), amygdala, midbrain, ventral anterior cingulate cortex, and nucleus accumbens (NAcc) compared with the corresponding non-hostile baseline. These results support the critical role of the medial PFC (mPFC) for the neural correlates of social cognition and socio-emotional processing in response to different types of jokes. Moreover, the processing of HJs showed increased activation in the dmPFC, which suggested cognitive operations of social motivation, whereas the processing of NJs displayed increased activation in the vmPFC, which suggested social-affective engagement. HJs versus NJs primarily showed increased activation in the dmPFC and midbrain, whereas NJs versus HJs primarily displayed greater activation in the amygdala and midbrain. The psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis demonstrated functional coupling of the dmPFC–dlPFC and midbrain–dmPFC for HJs and functional coupling of the vmPFC–midbrain and amygdala–midbrain–NAcc for NJs. Surprisingly, HJs were not perceived as funnier than NJs. Future studies could further investigate the neural correlates of potentially important traits of high-hostility tendencies in humor appreciation based on the psychoanalytic and superiority theories of humor.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5083847
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-50838472016-11-11 Neural Correlates of Hostile Jokes: Cognitive and Motivational Processes in Humor Appreciation Chan, Yu-Chen Liao, Yi-Jun Tu, Cheng-Hao Chen, Hsueh-Chih Front Hum Neurosci Neuroscience Hostile jokes (HJs) provide aggressive catharsis and a feeling of superiority. Behavioral research has found that HJs are perceived as funnier than non-hostile jokes (NJs). The purpose of the present study was to identify the neural correlates of the interaction between type and humor by comparing HJs, NJs, and their corresponding hostile sentences (HSs) and non-hostile sentences (NSs). HJs primarily showed activation in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and midbrain compared with the corresponding hostile baseline. Conversely, NJs primarily revealed activation in the ventromedial PFC (vmPFC), amygdala, midbrain, ventral anterior cingulate cortex, and nucleus accumbens (NAcc) compared with the corresponding non-hostile baseline. These results support the critical role of the medial PFC (mPFC) for the neural correlates of social cognition and socio-emotional processing in response to different types of jokes. Moreover, the processing of HJs showed increased activation in the dmPFC, which suggested cognitive operations of social motivation, whereas the processing of NJs displayed increased activation in the vmPFC, which suggested social-affective engagement. HJs versus NJs primarily showed increased activation in the dmPFC and midbrain, whereas NJs versus HJs primarily displayed greater activation in the amygdala and midbrain. The psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis demonstrated functional coupling of the dmPFC–dlPFC and midbrain–dmPFC for HJs and functional coupling of the vmPFC–midbrain and amygdala–midbrain–NAcc for NJs. Surprisingly, HJs were not perceived as funnier than NJs. Future studies could further investigate the neural correlates of potentially important traits of high-hostility tendencies in humor appreciation based on the psychoanalytic and superiority theories of humor. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-10-28 /pmc/articles/PMC5083847/ /pubmed/27840604 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00527 Text en Copyright © 2016 Chan, Liao, Tu and Chen. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Chan, Yu-Chen
Liao, Yi-Jun
Tu, Cheng-Hao
Chen, Hsueh-Chih
Neural Correlates of Hostile Jokes: Cognitive and Motivational Processes in Humor Appreciation
title Neural Correlates of Hostile Jokes: Cognitive and Motivational Processes in Humor Appreciation
title_full Neural Correlates of Hostile Jokes: Cognitive and Motivational Processes in Humor Appreciation
title_fullStr Neural Correlates of Hostile Jokes: Cognitive and Motivational Processes in Humor Appreciation
title_full_unstemmed Neural Correlates of Hostile Jokes: Cognitive and Motivational Processes in Humor Appreciation
title_short Neural Correlates of Hostile Jokes: Cognitive and Motivational Processes in Humor Appreciation
title_sort neural correlates of hostile jokes: cognitive and motivational processes in humor appreciation
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5083847/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27840604
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00527
work_keys_str_mv AT chanyuchen neuralcorrelatesofhostilejokescognitiveandmotivationalprocessesinhumorappreciation
AT liaoyijun neuralcorrelatesofhostilejokescognitiveandmotivationalprocessesinhumorappreciation
AT tuchenghao neuralcorrelatesofhostilejokescognitiveandmotivationalprocessesinhumorappreciation
AT chenhsuehchih neuralcorrelatesofhostilejokescognitiveandmotivationalprocessesinhumorappreciation