title: The activation of theory of mind network differentiates between point-to-self and point-to-other verbal jokes: an fMRI study.
abstract: The mind-reading hypothesis of humor and the inner eye theory of laughter both claim that readers' mentalizing about characters in jokes is essential for perceiving humor. On the basis of this notion, we hypothesized that point-to-other verbal jokes (in which one character said funny things about the other character) induced more theory of mind (ToM) processing than point-to-self verbal jokes (in which one character said funny things about him/herself to the other character). Our hypothesis was tested by comparing percent signal changes of these two conditions in six core components of the ToM neural network. A whole-brain analysis was also conducted. Results from both the region of interest (ROI) analysis and the whole-brain analysis show that theory of mind network is more activated when subjects read point-to-other jokes than when they read point-to-self jokes. Moreover, the whole-brain results provide support for the viewpoint that the right hemisphere, especially the right frontal lobe, is important in ToM and humor processing.
authors: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors: Shengchuang
authors: S
authors: Feng
authors: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors: Xiang
authors: X
authors: Ye
authors: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China. Electronic address: maolihua@pku.edu.cn.
authors: Lihua
authors: L
authors: Mao
authors: Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
authors: Xiaodong
authors: X
authors: Yue
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D056345:Theory of Mind / Q000502:physiology*; D014925:Wit and Humor as Topic; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Humor; Theory of mind (ToM); Verbal jokes; fMRI