Can brain stimulation improve semantic joke comprehension?

ABSTRACT

Semantic humour involves a deviation from lexico-semantic rules that introduces ambiguity into interpretation of a situation. The left Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG) has been implicated in humour processing (e.g. semantic puns, ambiguity resolution). The present study aimed to examine whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left IFG would enhance semantic ambiguity resolution. In two sessions, fifteen participants aged 20–35 years received either offline anodal tDCS or sham stimulation for 20 min, after which they read semantically ambiguous humorous sentences, literal (non-ambiguous) sentences, and meaningless sentences, and then performed a semantic judgment task relating to each sentence’s final word. Results showed that ambiguity resolution requires longer processing than literality. However, left IFG stimulation was ineffective in increasing ambiguity resolution. Researchers should target different brain areas in both hemispheres to further explore humour comprehension.

KEYWORDS:

• Humor
• tDCS
• left IFG
• semantic ambiguity resolution

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Shira Chana Bienstock for her thorough editorial review of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within its supplementary materials.

Notes

1 Please note: Suls (1972) is widely cited for his theory and one of the jokes he gives as an example is also highly cited (Suls, 1972, p. 8). The joke goes as follows, “One prostitute said to another, ‘Can you lend me ten dollars until I get back on my back?’”. This joke is inappropriate and chauvinist, and not in line with what is appropriate to our day and age.