Shibata Midori, Terasawa Yuri, Osumi Takahiro, Masui Keita, Ito Yuichi, Sato Arisa, Umeda Satoshi
Keio Advanced Research Center, Keio University, Tokyo 108-8345, Japan.
Keio Advanced Research Center, Keio University, Tokyo 108-8345, Japan; Department of Psychology, Keio University, Tokyo 108-8345, Japan.
Brain Res. 2017 Feb 15;1657:215-222. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2016.12.010. Epub 2016 Dec 19.
Although a number of studies have investigated the incongruity-detection and resolution process in humor comprehension, it is difficult to functionally and anatomically dissociate these processes. We used event-related potentials (ERP) and standardized low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography analysis (sLORETA) to examine the time course and localization of brain activity during incongruity detection and resolution. We used the same materials as in our previous fMRI study. Eighteen participants read funny and unfunny scenarios and judged whether the target sentence was funny or not. Results indicated that ERPs elicited by a funny punch line showed a P2 component followed by a P600 component over the centro-parietal electrode sites. Our sLORETA analysis of the P2 ERPs revealed a stronger activation for the funny vs. unfunny condition in the superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). For the P600 ERPs, the funny punch line elicited greater activation in the temporal-parietal regions. These results indicate that incongruity-detection processes activate the SFG and mPFC in the P2 time window, while incongruity-resolution processes generate activation at the temporal-parietal regions in the P600 time window. These results provide the evidence that verbal humor comprehension is processed in steps which start with the incongruity detection in the early P2 time window and followed by a P600 component reflecting incongruity resolution.
尽管已有多项研究探讨了幽默理解中的不一致性检测和解决过程，但从功能和解剖学上区分这些过程却很困难。我们使用事件相关电位（ERP）和标准化低分辨率脑电磁断层扫描分析（sLORETA）来研究在不一致性检测和解决过程中大脑活动的时间进程和定位。我们使用了与之前功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究相同的材料。18名参与者阅读有趣和无趣的场景，并判断目标句子是否有趣。结果表明，有趣的妙语引发的ERP在中央顶叶电极部位先出现一个P2成分，随后是一个P600成分。我们对P2 ERP的sLORETA分析显示，与无趣条件相比，有趣条件下额上回（SFG）和内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）的激活更强。对于P600 ERP，有趣的妙语在颞顶叶区域引发了更大的激活。这些结果表明，不一致性检测过程在P2时间窗口激活SFG和mPFC，而不一致性解决过程在P600时间窗口在颞顶叶区域产生激活。这些结果提供了证据，表明言语幽默理解是分步骤进行的，首先在早期P2时间窗口进行不一致性检测，随后是反映不一致性解决的P600成分。
