HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Data Supplement Correspondence: Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when Correspondence are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wild, B. Articles by Ruch, W. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Wild, B. Articles by Ruch, W. Related Collections All Neuropsychology/Behavior Neuropsychological assessment

Humor and smiling

Cortical regions selective for cognitive, affective, and volitional components

From the Department of Psychiatry (B.W., A.R.) and Section for Experimental Magnetic Resonance of the CNS (B.W., F.A.R., A.R., M.E.,W.G.), Department of Neuroradiology, University of Tübingen, Germany; and Department of Psychology (W.R.), University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. B. Wild, Zwingerweg 1, 72202 Nagold, Germany; e-mail: bawild{at}med.uni-tuebingen.de

Background: The interrelationships among humor, smiling, and grinning have fascinated philosophers for millennia and neurologists for over a century. A functional dissociation between emotional facial expressions and those under voluntary control was suggested decades ago. Recent functional imaging studies, however, have been somewhat at odds with older studies with respect to the role of the right frontal cortex in the perception of humor.

Methods: Blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) activity was measured in 13 subjects during the presentation of "funny" vs "nonfunny" versions of essentially the same cartoons and compared with BOLD activity associated with "merely grinning" at similar nonfunny cartoons via fMRI.

Results: Humor perception was correlated with BOLD activity in the left temporo-occipitoparietal junction and left prefrontal cortex and humor-associated smiling (recorded with an MR-compatible video camera) with bilateral activity in the basal temporal lobes. Unexpectedly, both conditions were also accompanied by a decrease in BOLD activity in the right orbitofrontal cortex. Voluntary "grinning" in the absence of humorous stimuli was accompanied by bilateral activity in the facial motor regions.

Conclusions: These results confirm the clinically derived hypothesis of separate cortical regions responsible for the production of emotionally driven vs voluntary facial expressions. The right orbitofrontal decrease reconciles inconsistencies between clinical and functional imaging findings and may reflect a disinhibition of facial emotional expression.

Additional material related to this article can be found on the Neurology Web site. Go to www.neurology.org and scroll down the Table of Contents for the March 28 issue to find the title link for this article.

Supported by a grant from Fortüne (University of Tübingen).

Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Received May 13, 2005. Accepted in final form November 21, 2005.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. H. Taber, M. Redden, and R. A. Hurley Functional Anatomy of Humor: Positive Affect and Chronic Mental Illness J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci, November 1, 2007; 19(4): 358 - 362. [Full Text] [PDF]

				Brain Mapping Humor Journal Watch Neurology, May 4, 2006; 2006(504): 7 - 7. [Full Text]