DIFFERENT kinds of jokes are processed in different parts of the
brain鈥攂ut amusement is experienced in one place. Vinod Goel at York
University in Toronto and Raymond Dolan of the Institute of Neurology in London
gave MRI scans to 14 people while they listened to two types of jokes. Half the
jokes were 鈥渟emantic鈥�, such as: 鈥淲hy don鈥檛 sharks bite lawyers? Professional
courtesy.鈥� The other half were puns.
Semantic jokes were processed in the temporal lobes, while puns were
processed in areas of the brain close to those used for speech (Nature
Neuroscience, vol 4, p 237). When the volunteers found either kind of joke
funny, they activated a part of their brain known as the medial ventral
prefrontal cortex鈥攁nd the more they liked it, the more the area lit
up.