Erb, Michael

Grodd, Wolfgang

Rodden, Appletree

Ruch, Willibald

Titze, Michael

Wild, Barbara

ZORA

Zurich Open Repository andArchiveUniversity of ZurichMain LibraryStrickhofstrasse 39CH-8057 Zurichwww.zora.uzh.chYear: 2001Humour, laughter and exhilaration studied with functional MagneticResonance Imaging (fMRI)Rodden, Appletree; Wild, Barbara; Erb, Michael; Titze, Michael; Ruch, Willibald; Grodd, WolfgangAbstract: UnspecifiedPosted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of ZurichZORA URL: http://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-77503Supplemental MaterialOriginally published at:Rodden, Appletree; Wild, Barbara; Erb, Michael; Titze, Michael; Ruch, Willibald; Grodd, Wolfgang(2001). Humour, laughter and exhilaration studied with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).NeuroImage, 13(6, Supplem):466.Humour, Laughter and Exhilaration studied with functional MagneticResonance Imaging (fMRI)F.A. Rodden 1, B. Wild 2, M. Erb 1, M. Titze 3, W. Ruch 4, W. Grodd 11 Section Exp. MR of the CNS, Dept. of Neuroradiology, University of Tuebingen, Germany2 Department of Psychiatry, University of Tuebingen, Germany3 Clinical Psychologist, Tuttlingen, Germany4 School of Psychology, Queen's University of Belfast, N. IrelandIntroduction: According to two recent studies employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the processing of humourappears to be correlated with brain activity in the left posterior middle- and inferior temporal gyri, the right posterior middle temporalgyrus, the left inferior frontal gyrus, the cerebellum (1), Broca’s area and the middle frontal gyrus (2).  It has also been observed thathumour-related laughter could be induced by stimulating the supplementary motor cortex (in an epileptic girl undergoing monitoringwith subdural electrodes (3)).  Against this background, we have begun to attempt to differentiate the brain’s activity duringexhilaration, the perception of verbal humour, and overt laughter using fMRI.Methods: Five  young, right-handed volunteers were presented with two sets of recorded audio stimuli (via earphones) while lying inan fMRI apparatus. The first set of stimuli consisted of recorded laughter interspersed with periods of silence and "white noise".  Abouthalf-way through the period of laughter, the subjects were requested to  "inhibit your laughter and feelings of exhilaration."  Thesecond set of stimuli consisted of short humorous readings, alternating with neutral readings (weather reports, for example).  Adiagram of these two protocols is presented in Fig. 1.                         Figure 2: Subject in                         MR tunnel  as seen                          with video camera.Throughout both parts of the experiment, subjects were requested to consciously exhibit the degrees of exhilaration and/or thedegrees of humour that they were experiencing moment by moment via their "natural" facial expressions (i.e. by smiling and/orlaughing at corresponding intensities). They were, however, also requested to inhibit laughter-induced head-movements.  To facilitatethis, their heads were immobilised in a plastic shell with an elastic band. In order to correlate the subjects' emotional states on asecond-by-second basis with the fMRI measurements, the face of each subject was continually monitored by an MR-compatible videocamera (4). See Fig. 2.At the end of each session, the subjects were interviewed via a standardised questionnaire to determine the emotions he/she hadexperienced during the various stimuli.  fMRI of the whole brain was performed with a 1.5 Tesla tomograph (Siemens Sonata) usingecho planar imaging (28 slices, slice thickness 4 mm, 64 x 64 matrix, acquisition time 3 seconds). Statistical evaluation of the groups(involving realignment, coregistration, smoothing <8 mm> and normalisation) was carried out with SPM99b (Wellcome Department ofCognitive Neurology, London) in a combination of block diagram and event-related modes. Only the block-diagram evaluations arepresented in this poster.Results:In both parts of the experiment, video data of the subjects’ facial expressions showed a satisfactory degree of correspondencebetween the stimuli being presented and the responses being felt so that evaluation of the data in the block diagram mode seemedvalid.  This correspondence was, however, higher in Part 1 than in Part 2.Part 1: In response to the recorded laughter, all subjects reported having been induced into a state of exhilaration which they wereable to voluntarily inhibit.  Unfortunately, however, the laughter-associated head movement of one of the subjects was so pronouncedthat the movement-correction programs employed were no longer sufficient to the task and his data could not be evaluated for thispart of the experiment.  In the other four subjects, maximal differences between “exhilaration” and “inhibition of exhilaration”  wereobserved in the right frontobasal region (x = -54, y = 12, z = 9; T = 4.67, Z = inf.). See Fig. 3.Part 2: The responses to the second set of stimuli: "humorous" vs "neutral" readings were less uniform.  Some subjects tended toeither laugh/smile over several sessions whereas others remained relatively non-responsive. The verbal reports of the subjectsconfirmed this inconsistency. In spite of this, there were highly significant differences in brain activity of the group data between thehumorous vs. the neutral readings. The maximum activity for this contrast was observed was in the right temporal lobe (x = 45, y = 3,z = -25; T = 13.31; Z = inf.). See Fig. 4.  Although no activations were observed in the supplementary motor cortex (3), the activationsseen in Figures 3 and 4 are in general agreement with results from the recent studies (1,2) similar to those reported here.Figure 3: Active  areas  during  “Exhil-                    Figure 4: Active areas during               aration”  (induced  by  listen-                                        humorous  vs. non-               listening to recorded laught-)                                    humorous readings.               er vs. voluntary “inhibition of                                   exhilaration.”References:1. Ozawa,F., Matsuo,K., Nakai, T., et al. Neuroreport 11, 2000, 1141        3. Fried, I.,Wilson,C.,McDonald,K.,et al.Nature 39,2000, j502. Goel, V., Dolan, R. Nature Neurosci.  4, 2001, 238                                 4. Wild,B.,Erb,M.,Lemke,N. Mag.Res.Imag.18,2000, 893

Humour, laughter and exhilaration studied with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

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