‘Honey, shall I change the baby? – Well done, choose another one’: ERP and time-frequency correlates of humor processing

Canal, Paolo; Bischetti, Luca; Paola, Simona Di; Bertini, Chiara; Ricci, Irene; Bambini, Valentina

doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2019.02.001

Cited by 42 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 107 publications

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“…This is a totally new finding, which indicates that while comprehension is impaired, appreciation is not affected by ALS. This dissociation is in line with the idea of different mechanisms (Wyer and Collins 1992) and distinct brain response (Canal et al 2019;Vrticka et al 2013) for comprehension and for appreciation, the former more cognitive and the latter more affective. Further studies are certainly needed to confirm this initial evidence, and to account for the difference between the apparently intact appreciation in ALS and the reduced appreciation reported in other neurodegenerative conditions, for example, Parkinson's disease (Thaler et al 2012), possibly considering the role of depression in these conditions.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Beyond the motor account of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Verbal humour and its relationship with the cognitive and pragmatic profile

Bambini

Bischetti

Bonomi

et al. 2020

Intl J Lang & Comm Disor

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Background Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) was traditionally described as a disease restricted to the motor system. However, recent findings suggested that it also affects cognition, especially executive functions, social cognition, language and pragmatics. A relevant issue in current research is thus the description of the cognitive phenotype of ALS and the identification of the most vulnerable aspects. Aims The focus was on a communicative phenomenon placed at the crossroads of pragmatic and other cognitive domains, namely humour, which till now has been poorly explored in ALS. The first aim was to investigate whether ALS is associated with impairments in understanding and appreciating jokes. The second aim was to explore the predictors of humour comprehension and appreciation in patients, to confirm the involvement of pragmatic skills and to explore the role of other cognitive and clinical aspects. Methods & Procedures A total of 30 non‐demented patients with ALS and 27 controls were assessed with a task of verbal humour comprehension and appreciation, including two types of jokes: phonological and mental. We also administered a battery of pragmatic and other language tasks, and cognitive and socio‐cognitive tasks. Mixed‐effects models were used to test differences in the humour task between the two groups. Multiple regressions determined the best predictors of humour comprehension and appreciation in patients. Outcomes & Results Patients obtained lower comprehension accuracy scores than controls in the humour task, independently of the type of joke. Conversely, patients and controls did not differ in joke appreciation and both rated mental jokes as funnier than the phonological ones. Patients’ comprehension accuracy was predicted by pragmatic skills and ALS severity, whereas appreciation was predicted by several clinical variables and, to a smaller extent, by language skills. Conclusions & Implications The findings suggest that humour is a very vulnerable aspect in ALS, and that impairment in humour comprehension might be part of the larger cognitive impairment, being linked to pragmatic impairment. Clinical variables were also important, especially in relation to humour appreciation. More generally, these data speak in favour of pragmatics as a relevant aspect to sketch the cognitive phenotype of ALS. On the practical level, these findings point to the need of supporting communication at large, not only motor‐related aspects such as dysarthria but also social–pragmatic aspects such as understanding jokes, to increase well‐being in ALS.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Beyond the motor account of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Verbal humour and its relationship with the cognitive and pragmatic profile

Bambini

Bischetti

Bonomi

et al. 2020

Intl J Lang & Comm Disor

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“…All this seems conceivably true also for the humor on In order to achieve these functions or any other purposes, humor must be understood and appreciated: humor comprehension mechanisms are described as involving both a cognitive and an emotional component (Suls, 1972;Wyer and Collins, 1992). Cognitive processes are in charge of recognizing and resolving the incongruity between expectations and the humorous trigger as reflected in the involvement of an extended brain network and a composite neurophysiological response (see, for instance, Canal et al, 2019;Manfredi et al, 2020;Vrticka et al, 2013). Emotional processes further elaborate on the output of comprehension allowing for humor appreciation: this includes the positive dimension of funniness (the degree to which one considers the humor to be funny) and the negative dimension of aversiveness (the degree to which one considers the humor to be disturbing; Ruch, 1992).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Funny but aversive: A large-scale survey of the emotional response to Covid-19 humor in the Italian population during the lockdown

Bischetti

Canal

Bambini

2021

Lingua

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We often see an upsurge of humor inspired by tragic circumstances: this happened also during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak. However, little is known about the emotional response to tragedy-triggered humor, let alone Covid-19 humor. With a largescale survey completed during the early stages of Italy's lockdown, we studied the appreciation (funniness and aversiveness) of different formats of Covid-19 humor shared on social media. Results of an analysis of the role of demographic, personality, and psychological distance factors with linear mixed models showed that Covid-19 humor lacks a "signature" of funniness, but displays a mark of aversiveness. Among demographics, age and gender were key factors: with increasing age and in women, Covid-19 humor was judged as more aversive. Individuals using humor to cope with uneasy circumstances judged Covid-19 humor as funnier and less aversive. Furthermore, the perceived risk of infection amplified Covid-19 humor aversiveness, while kilometrical distance from the first Italian contagion hotspot raised the amusement in global terms. These findings expand our knowledge about dark humor and should raise awareness of the great variation in the emotional impact of Covid-19 humor and of the need to ponder where and with whom to share the laugh about the pandemic.

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“…Compared to straightforward conditions, the comprehension of humorous passages show a complex pattern of ERP effects, very often involving two or more different components. The effect that is first encountered shows a negative polarity: it is taken to involve the N400 [e.g., [84][85][86][87], or the Left Anterior Negativity (LAN) [e.g., 84,88,89]. After the initial negativity, the majority of studies reported positive effects on the ERP response, from relatively early occurring effects on the P600 (500 to roughly 750 ms) [88,90] to later occurring differences associated with the LPC [86,88].…”

Section: Eeg Indexes For Mind Reading Pragmaticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies on humor processing rarely explored the time-frequency domain of the EEG. One single study focused on verbal materials and observed a power decrease in the beta range of the EEG [88]. When processing visual stimuli, the involvement of several frequency ranges [91] or a specific role for alpha oscillations and creative cognition in humor [92] was found.…”

Section: Eeg Indexes For Mind Reading Pragmaticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pragmatics Electrified

Canal¹,

Bambini²

2021

Preprint

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‘Honey, shall I change the baby? – Well done, choose another one’: ERP and time-frequency correlates of humor processing

Cited by 42 publications

References 107 publications

Beyond the motor account of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Verbal humour and its relationship with the cognitive and pragmatic profile

Beyond the motor account of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Verbal humour and its relationship with the cognitive and pragmatic profile

Funny but aversive: A large-scale survey of the emotional response to Covid-19 humor in the Italian population during the lockdown

Pragmatics Electrified

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