title: The fear of other persons' laughter: Poor neuronal protection against social signals of anger and aggression.
abstract: The fear of other persons' laughter (gelotophobia) occurs in the context of several psychiatric conditions, particularly in the schizophrenia spectrum and social phobia. It entails severe personal and inter-personal problems including heightened aggression and possibly violence. Individuals with gelotophobia (n=30; 24 with social phobia or Cluster A diagnosis) and matched symptom-free controls (n=30) were drawn from a large screening sample (n=1440). EEG coherences were recorded during the confrontation with other people's affect expressions, to investigate the brain's modulatory control over the emotionally laden perceptual input. Gelotophobia was associated with more loose functional coupling of prefrontal and posterior cortex during the processing of expressions of anger and aggression, thus leaving the individual relatively unprotected from becoming affected by these social signals. The brain's response to social signals of anger/aggression and the accompanied heightened permeability for this kind of information explains the particular sensitivity to actual or supposed malicious aspects of laughter (and possibly of other ambiguous social signals) in individuals with gelotophobia, which represents the core feature of the condition. Heightened perception of stimuli that could be perceived as offensive, which is inherent in several psychiatric conditions, may be particularly evident in the fear of other persons' laughter.
authors.affiliation: University of Graz, Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology Unit, Univ.-Platz 2, A-1010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Ilona
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Papousek
authors.affiliation: University of Graz, Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology Unit, Univ.-Platz 2, A-1010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Günter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schulter
authors.affiliation: University of Graz, Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology Unit, Univ.-Platz 2, A-1010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rominger
authors.affiliation: University of Graz, Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology Unit, Univ.-Platz 2, A-1010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fink
authors.affiliation: University of Graz, Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology Unit, Univ.-Platz 2, A-1010 Graz, Austria. Electronic address: e.weiss@uni-graz.at.
authors.forename: Elisabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Weiss
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression; D000786:Anger; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007845:Laughter / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D000066829:Neuroprotection; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D014754:Violence; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: EEG coherence; Functional connectivity; Gelotophobia; Social-emotional stimulation