The neural correlates of creativity and perceptual pleasure: from simple shapes to humor

2016-07-28Unlike humor appreciation, the fMRI study of humor creation has been unexplored. 40 participants including professional and amateur improv comedians and controls viewed New Yorker cartoon drawings of human interactions (without the captions) and, in one condition (HUM), generated a humorous caption, and, in another (MUN), a mundane caption. The HUM condition produced bilaterally greater activation in the striatum, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and temporal association regions. A dose response function was evident such that greater activation in those regions correlated with funnier punchlines. While the same regions were involved in both humor appreciation and creation, only in humor creation did activation in reward regions precede activation in temporal association regions. Greater comedic experience was associated with decreased activation in the striatum and mPFC, but increased activation in anterior temporal regions. I propose that the mPFC helps to direct the search through association space taking place in the anterior temporal regions and that such intervention is needed less for more experienced comedians who, to a greater extent, reap the fruits of their spontaneous associations