26 MAY 2005
Sarcasm: It's the cutting edge of speech. You're
playing caboose in the foot-race, and an acquaintance blurts out, "Got
a real hot foot today, eh?"
This kibitzer may think you're as sluggish as a snail in a bucket of ball bearings, but instead of saying, "Get a move on, Bub!" he says the opposite. He uses a touch of humor, but you still get the message. You are not, despite the literal meaning of his words, going anywhere fast.
That's
sarcasm.
Even though Oscar Wilde called sarcasm the lowest form of wit, interpreting sarcasm requires some sophisticated abilities: You must interpret the literal meaning of the words, understand the speaker's attitude and emotions, and judge whether the literal meaning -- or the opposite -- is the real message.
To find out where all this occurs in the brain, Simone Shamay-Tsoory
and colleagues at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa and the University
of Haifa (Israel), used a classic technique of neurophyschology: They
looked at people with damage to specific brain regions. They found --
like previous researchers -- that different areas supported different
abilities needed to interpret sarcasm. But their results further narrowed
the critical region to a specific corner of the brain.
The ventromedial area, at the rear of the prefrontal cortex, is necessary to understanding sarcasm.
Sarcastic study
The study tested 25 people with damage to the prefrontal lobe, site of
many higher brain functions, 16 people with damage to the posterior cortex,
and 17 healthy controls. Each person listened to two versions of a short,
recorded story, which translates thusly into English:
Sarcastic:
"Joe came to work, and instead of beginning to work, he sat down to rest.
His boss noticed his behavior and said, 'Joe, don't work too hard.' Meaning:
'You're a real slacker!'"
Neutral:
"Joe came to work and immediately began to work. His boss noticed his
behavior and said, 'Joe, don't work too hard!' Meaning: 'You're a hard
worker!'"
The researchers then checked if the subject understood: Did the manager believe Joe was working hard? (No, in the sarcastic version. Yes, in the neutral version.)
Damage to the prefrontal cortex produced most of
the errors in interpreting sarcasm. Data
from "The Neuroanatomical..." (see bibliography below).
A theory of mind
Only when the prefrontal cortex was damaged did the subjects have trouble
detecting sarcasm. But this wasn't equally true of both sides of the prefrontal
cortex: Failure to detect sarcasm was linked to damage to the right ventromedial
area of the prefrontal cortex.
While previous researchers had located the interpretation of irony and sarcasm on the right side of the brain, and in the prefrontal cortex, this was the first experiment to locate sarcasm in the right side of the prefrontal cortex, Shamay-Tsoory and colleagues wrote.
Damage to the right prefrontal cortex was strongly
associated with difficulty detecting sarcasm. Data
from "The Neuroanatomical..." (see bibliography below).
To
understand sarcasm, Shamay-Tsoory says, you must interpret the literal
meaning of the words, grasp the emotional context of the situation, and
then develop a "theory of mind" to help you understand how the speaker
sees things. Finally, based on your assessment of these elements, you
must decide whether what you are hearing is intended literally, or whether
it's sarcasm -- and means just the opposite.
It's a network job, one that requires several parts of the brain, in particular the right prefrontal cortex. No joke!
-- David Tenenbaum
Bibliography
The Neuroanatomical Basis of Understanding Sarcasm and Its Relationship
to Social Cognition," S.G. Shamay-Tsoory, PhD, and R. Tomer, PhD, Rambam
Medical Center and University of Haifa, and J. Aharon-Peretz, MD, Rambam
Medical Center; Neuropsychology, Vol. 19, No. 3.
Related Why Files
Bossman blues
Mouse brains
Language vs. culture
Making memories
