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Updated: Aug 25, 2026

Humor or Rationality? The Neural Mechanisms of How Agent Type and Language Style Influence Satisfaction with Ride-Hailing Service Failure Recovery
Published on: March 13, 2026
Neural correlates of humor detection and appreciation
Joseph M Moran1, Gagan S Wig, Reginald B Adams
1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA.
Abstract:
Humor is a uniquely human quality whose neural substrates remain enigmatic. The present report combined dynamic, real-life content and event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to dissociate humor detection ("getting the joke") from humor appreciation (the affective experience of mirth). During scanning, subjects viewed full-length episodes of the television sitcoms Seinfeld or The Simpsons. Brain activity time-locked to humor detection moments revealed increases in left inferior frontal and posterior temporal cortices, whereas brain activity time-locked to moments of humor appreciation revealed increases in bilateral regions of insular cortex and the amygdala. These findings provide evidence that humor depends critically upon extant neural systems important for resolving incongruities (humor detection) and for the expression of affect (humor appreciation).
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