High-tech scientists see the joke

By JO-MARIE BROWN

Researchers have discovered where humour resides in the human brain.

The scientists say they have recorded tiny electrical impulses indicating humour registering in the front of the brain.

The humour site seems to be based in the lower frontal lobes of the brain, in an area behind the right eye associated with social and emotional involvement.

A team led by American radiologist Dr Dean Shibata gave 13 medical registrars a series of laugh tests while charting their brain activity with high-tech functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI).

When the doctors at the University of Rochester School of Medicine were asked to listen to laughter without joining in, the scans showed activity in the area controlling movement and speech.

But when they were scanned reading a joke or looking at cartoons, which require decoding funny messages, the brain showed activity in the ventromedial frontal lobe.

Researchers believe the frontal lobe tells us what's funny.

Dr Shibata said the breakthrough was important, as it showed how we behaved and why some people with damage to parts of their brain underwent personality changes, to the extent of losing their sense of humour.

Auckland Hospital neurosurgeon Andrew Law said the FMRI scanning technique, developed in recent years, showed where activity was occurring in the brain.

The technique paved the way for research into every possible area of brain activity.

The frontal lobe was the "human part of the brain" from where personality and social behaviour stemmed.

"So you would expect that part of the brain to light up when humorous things take place," Mr Law said.

But more research would be needed before any future medical benefits could be determined.

New Zealand comedian Ewen Gilmour believes a mental function is definitely responsible for our sense of humour.

But fellow comic Mike King insists he doesn't want to know what part of the brain is responsible for keeping his audiences chuckling.

"Wherever it is just leave it there. It's nice and happy, don't go annoying it."