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Updated: Aug 28, 2025

Correlating Behavioral Responses to fMRI Signals from Human Prefrontal Cortex: Examining Cognitive Processes Using Task Analysis

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When laughter arrests speech: fMRI-based evidence.

B Westermann¹, M Lotze², L Varra³

¹Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences

|September 20, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Voluntarily vocalizing during tickle-induced laughter reduces activity in emotion-associated brain regions. This suggests a conflict between voluntary vocalization and involuntary laughter, impacting neural processing.

Keywords:

fMRI laughter tickle touch vocalization

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Psychology
Biology

Background:

Laughter, a complex human behavior, can inhibit voluntary speech.
Understanding the neural basis of laughter and its interaction with vocalization is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the neuronal processes underlying tickle-induced laughter.
To examine how voluntary vocalization affects the brain activity during laughter.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to study brain activity.
Participants experienced tickle-induced laughter and tickle-induced laughter with voluntary vocalization.

Main Results:

Both conditions showed increased neuronal activity in sensorimotor cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus, insula, nucleus accumbens, hypothalamus, and periaqueductal grey.
Voluntary vocalization during laughter led to lower activity in emotion-associated regions.
A specific activation pattern involving sensory cortex, anterior insula, and ventral tegmental field was identified during the conflict.

Conclusions:

Tickle-induced laughter involves a widespread network including emotion and motor areas.
Voluntary vocalization during laughter modulates this network, potentially by engaging sensory and interoceptive analyses and brainstem motor effectors.