DOI:10.6129/CJP.202303_65(1).0004
中華心理學刊 民 112，65 卷，1 期，59-80
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2023, Vol.65, No.1, 59-80

Yu-Chen Chan(Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Tsing Hua University)

Abstract

Humor and creativity processing both involve the generation of expectations during a ‘setup’ stage and the resolution of expectation violations and subsequent pleasurable experience of appreciation during a ‘punch line’ stage. However, much about how this processing occurs, especially the processing of funniness for humor and the novelty of alternate uses for creativity, remains unknown. The present study is the first to analyze the neural correlates of humor and creativity processing during both the setup and punch line stages (rather than only the second, punch line stage) based on the default mode network (DMN; precuneus and medial prefrontal cortex, mPFC), executive control network (ECN; inferior frontal gyrus, IFG), and salience network (SN; amygdala and insula). Throughout, there was a particular focus on the role of the amygdala. As expected, humor appreciation showed increased activation in the amygdala and anterior insula (AI) of the SN, while both humor and creativity anticipation were associated with increased activation in the amygdala and posterior insula (PI). Our findings show that the amygdala serves as a core reward hub in processing anticipatory pleasure during the setup stage and the appreciation of humorous outcomes during the punch line stage. When contrasting the punch line versus the setup stage, humor comprehension and appreciation showed increased activation in the amygdala and AI, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), ventromedial PFC (vmPFC), precuneus, and IFG, while creativity evaluation and appreciation demonstrated increased activation in the vmPFC and precuneus. The results suggest that humor appreciation elicits greater amygdala activation than does creativity appreciation. Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis further demonstrated functional connectivity with the amygdala as a seed with the precuneus and PI in the humor versus baseline (non-humor/non-creativity) condition contrast during the setup stage, possibly reflecting focused internal attention and spontaneous imaginative processes by the DMN as well as motivational anticipation and emotion processing. Likewise, the amygdala seed showed positive connectivity with the precuneus of the DMN in the humor versus baseline condition contrast during the punch line stage, suggesting top-down spontaneous cognition and affective amusement processes during humor comprehension and appreciation. Interestingly, PPI analysis revealed increased coupling between the amygdala and IFG of the ECN in the creativity versus humor condition contrast and the setup versus punch line condition contrast during the setup stage, suggesting motivational anticipation and external attention processes during creativity anticipation. These findings suggest that amygdala-frontoparietal couplings play a critical role in two-stage humor and creativity processing.

Keywords: amygdala-frontoparietal network, fMRI, punch line stage, salience network, setup stage