一项医学研究显示，人听到笑话时的脑部活动与听到普通话语时不同。研究人员说，希望借助这项发现确认“植物人”能否感受开心。
英国医学研究委员会下属认知能力和脑部科学部门的研究人员使用功能性核磁共振成像技术，对比正常人在听到普通话语和听到笑话时的脑部活动。
研究人员扫描12名志愿者的脑部发现，当人听到笑话时，大脑部分区域的活动比“处理”正常话语时强烈；笑话越好笑，脑部反应越大。
参与研究的马特·戴维斯在一份声明里说：“我们发现了人听到俏皮话时的脑部活动规律。”
戴维斯介绍，研究人员打算利用这项研究成果，尝试性了解缺乏沟通能力的人群是否能“听懂”笑话。
研究成果6月28日发表在《神经科学期刊》上。戴维斯的研究小组说，他们可能利用这项发现协助确认“植物人”能否感受到开心等正面情绪，辅助了解病人的思想状态。
“我们先前使用功能性核磁共振成像技术检测‘植物人’的语言理解能力，我们可以使用类似方法在病人脑部寻找积极情绪，”研究小组成员特里斯坦·贝金施滕说，“对病人家属而言，这非常重要。他们想知道病人在不幸中能否感受快乐和欢笑。”（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原文出处：
The Journal of Neuroscience doi: 10.1523/?JNEUROSCI.5058-10.2011
Why Clowns Taste Funny: The Relationship between Humor and Semantic Ambiguity
Tristan A. Bekinschtein, Matthew H. Davis, Jennifer M. Rodd, and Adrian M. Owen
What makes us laugh? One crucial component of many jokes is the disambiguation of words with multiple meanings. In this functional MRI study of normal participants, the neural mechanisms that underlie our experience of getting a joke that depends on the resolution of semantically ambiguous words were explored. Jokes that contained ambiguous words were compared with sentences that contained ambiguous words but were not funny, as well as to matched verbal jokes that did not depend on semantic ambiguity. The results confirm that both the left inferior temporal gyrus and left inferior frontal gyrus are involved in processing the semantic aspects of language comprehension, while a more widespread network that includes both of these regions and the temporoparietal junction bilaterally is involved in processing humorous verbal jokes when compared with matched nonhumorous material. In addition, hearing jokes was associated with increased activity in a network of subcortical regions, including the amygdala, the ventral striatum, and the midbrain, that have been implicated in experiencing positive reward. Moreover, activity in these regions correlated with the subjective ratings of funniness of the presented material. These results allow a more precise account of how the neural and cognitive processes that are involved in ambiguity resolution contribute to the appreciation of jokes that depend on semantic ambiguity.
