sarcasm scientific facts

'Sarcasm' brain areas discovered

The scientists pinpointed three important brain areas Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that comprehend sarcasm - honestly. By comparing healthy people and those with damage to different parts of the brain, they found the front of the brain was key to understanding sarcasm. Damage to any of three different areas could render individuals unable to understand sarcastic comments. An example of sarcasm was "Joe came to work, and instead of beginning to work, he sat down to rest. His boss noticed and said to Joe 'don't work too hard.'" In fact, what Joe's boss actually meant by his comment was "you are a slacker". In the neutral version Joe came to work and began work immediately. His boss made the same "don't work too hard" comment, but this time, he actually meant that Joe was a hard worker. The volunteers who had damage to their prefrontal lobes were unable to correctly interpret the sarcastic story, while all of the other participants could. Dr Shamay-Tsoory said this fitted with what is already known about the anatomy of the brain. She said language areas on the left hand side of the brain interpret the literal meaning of words and the frontal lobes and the right side of the brain understand the social and emotional context. An area called the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex then integrates the literal meaning with the social/emotional context, which will reveal any sarcasm. "A lesion in each region in the network can impair sarcasm, because if someone has a problem understanding a social situation, he or she may fail to understand the literal language," she said.

Taken from bbc.co.uk Full URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4566319.stm