Several studies have examined the neural regions underlying humor appreciation, showing that the neural “funny bone” is actually a very complex system. Ultimately, this theory hinges on the still thinly explored issue of whether the brain’s reward circuitry is essential to experiencing humor. But why is this the case? What is it about humor that makes it so enjoyable? One recent theory (Hurley, Dennett, & Adams, 2011) has suggested that reward is a central mechanism of humor, motivating a process of debugging inferential errors in our comprehension of the world that is essential for smooth cognitive functioning.
PARTS OF THEBRAIN JOKE MOVIE
The funny pages in newspapers, specialized genres of television shows, and a multibillion dollar comedy movie industry all attest to our craving for humor. Humor may serve many purposes, but one of the most difficult questions to answer is why we enjoy it so much.
From easing tensions, to attracting potential romantic interests, to just having a good time, we use humor in many ways in our social interactions. Humor also plays an important role in social bonding we like others who are humorous and find them more attractive and appealing (Wanzer, Booth-Butterfield, & Booth-Butterfield, 1996). The rewarding nature of humor may help explain why it is so valued socially.Īll of us possess a “sense of humor” (admittedly, some more than others), which we use to help us cope with stressful situations, to induce socially lubricating positive emotions, and to defuse tense situations (see, e.g., Dienstbier, 1995 Martin, Kuiper, Olinger, & Dance, 1993). These findings indicate that dynamic social displays of humor do engage reward responses. A regression with participants’ own ratings of humor revealed similar activity in reward areas as well as in regions involved in theory of mind. We found that high-funny clips elicited more activation in several brain regions involved with reward responses, including the nucleus accumbens, caudate, and putamen. Participants watched video clips of eight stand-up comedians, half female/half male, that were prerated by a separate group of participants from the same population as eliciting either high or low levels of amusement, thereby allowing us to control for comedian attributes and comedic style. In the present investigation, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine brain activation in response to video clips of comedians performing stand-up comedy, a more socially relevant task than reading jokes or cartoons in isolation. Instead, many studies have focused on responses to static cartoons or written jokes in isolation. Even fewer have investigated socially relevant, dynamic displays of real actors telling jokes. Humor is enjoyable, yet few studies to date have reported that humor engages brain regions involved in reward processing (i.e., the mesolimbic reward system).
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