Verification of the Four-Stage Model of Humor Processing: Evidence from an fMRI Study by Three-Element Verbal Jokes

• DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13030417
• Publication Date: 2023-02-28T07:28:09Z
• Authors: Chia-Yueh Chang; Yu-Chen Chan; Hsueh-Chih Chen
• Keywords: inferior parietal lobule; humor; 05 social sciences; Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; amygdala; insula; middle frontal gyrus; Article; RC321-571

The four-stage model comprises the expectation, incongruity, resolution, and elaboration stages of humor processing. In previous studies, most researchers used two-element jokes (setup and punch line) as stimuli, based on experimental methods, to explore the humor process. By contrast, the present study used a humor corpus with the novelty of three-element verbal jokes to perform direct separation from the material and clarify the humor processes. In this study, we used three-element verbal jokes and nonjokes, and we conducted a repeated-measures analysis of variance with a 3 × 2 two-way within-subject design. In humor processing, the posterior insula and middle frontal gyrus were mainly activated in the expectation; the middle temporal gyrus and the medial frontal gyrus in the incongruity; the inferior frontal gyri, superior frontal gyrus, and inferior parietal lobule in the resolution; and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, anterior insula, nucleus accumbens, and midbrain in the elaboration. The contributions of this study lie in its use of a humor corpus with the novelty of self-compiled three-element jokes, which not only successfully verified the models established in previous studies but added the expectation to the model; thus, this study separated the expectation and incongruity processes, making humor processing more complete.