Brain reactivity to humorous films is affected by insomnia

Abstract

Study objectives Emotional reactivity to negative stimuli has been investigated in insomnia, but little is known about emotional reactivity to positive stimuli and its neural representation. Methods We used 3T fMRI to determine neural reactivity during the presentation of standardized short, 10-40-s, humorous films in insomnia patients (n=20, 18 females, aged 27.7 +/- 8.6 years) and age-matched individuals without insomnia (n=20, 19 females, aged 26.7 +/- 7.0 years), and assessed humour ratings through a visual analogue scale (VAS). Seed-based functional connectivity was analysed for left and right amygdala networks: group-level mixed-effects analysis (FLAME; FSL) was used to compare amygdala connectivity maps between groups. Results fMRI seed-based analysis of the amygdala revealed stronger neural reactivity in insomnia patients than in controls in several brain network clusters within the reward brain network, without humour rating differences between groups (p = 0.6). For left amygdala connectivity, cluster maxima were in the left caudate (Z=3.88), left putamen (Z=3.79) and left anterior cingulate gyrus (Z=4.11), while for right amygdala connectivity, cluster maxima were in the left caudate (Z=4.05), right insula (Z=3.83) and left anterior cingulate gyrus (Z=4.29). Cluster maxima of the right amygdala network were correlated with hyperarousal scores in insomnia patients only. Conclusions Presentation of humorous films leads to increased brain activity in the neural reward network for insomnia patients compared to controls, related to hyperarousal features in insomnia patients, in the absence of humor rating group differences. These novel findings may benefit insomnia treatment interventions.

Mechanisms of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia

“…Patients with insomnia show attentional bias when presented with sleep‐related emotional stimuli (Barclay & Ellis, 2013; MacMahon et al, 2006; Lundh et al, 1997; for review, see Harris et al, 2015). Brain regions typically active when emotional stimuli are presented, such as the amygdala (Baglioni et al, 2014) and the brain reward network (Sanz‐Arigita et al, 2021), show increased activity and connectivity in patients with insomnia compared with controls. These findings may, though based on a limited number of studies, offer neural support for increases of selective attention of sleep‐related information, in the context of the opposite pattern of hypoactivity in prefrontal brain regions when presented with cognitive tasks.…”

“…and the brain reward network(Sanz-Arigita et al, 2021), show increased activity and connectivity in patients with insomnia compared with controls. These findings may, though based on a limited number of studies, offer neural support for increases of selective attention of sleep-related information, in the context of the opposite pattern of hypoactivity in prefrontal brain regions when presented with cognitive tasks.Effective treatment can be achieved by cognitive restructuring, which focuses on increasing the patient's awareness of the ineffectiveness of dramatising thoughts and dysfunctional beliefs about lack of sleep and its consequences but also, importantly, on their aggravating influence on insomnia.…”

Establishing the Roles of the Dorsal and Ventral Striatum in Humor Comprehension and Appreciation with fMRI

“…The role of the dorsal striatum (DS; i.e., dorsal caudate nucleus and putamen) in humor processing has generally been overlooked. Although activations of the left putamen ( Iwase et al, 2002 ; Filik et al, 2019 ; Sanz-Arigita et al, 2021 ), the right putamen ( Goldin et al, 2005 ; Neely et al, 2012 ; Shibata et al, 2014 ), the left caudate ( Sanz-Arigita et al, 2021 ), and the right caudate ( Goldin et al, 2005 ; Osaka et al, 2014 ; Sanz-Arigita et al, 2021 ) have been identified in studies of humor processing, most authors do not put importance on these findings or discuss their implications. Filik et al (2019) were the lone authors to discuss the role of the putamen in language processing and how this could contribute to humor comprehension.…”

Cerebellar Contribution in Emotional Faces Based on a Sample of Sleep-Deprived Healthy Young Men

“…The advancement of neuroimaging techniques enables scientists to substantially investigate brain regions involved in emotion regulation. Limbic systems (e.g., insula, cingulate gyrus, and hippocampus), prefrontal cortex, and temporal cortex are among the most frequently researched areas (Cheng et al, 2018;Killgore, 2013;Motomura et al, 2017;Sanz-Arigita et al, 2021). The amygdala, for instance, is well documented for its role in processing aversive information (Tamm et al, 2020;Yoo et al, 2007).…”