The biology of humour Scientists are getting a glimpse of how jokes are processed by the human brain.
Brain scans show that puns and other types of joke are deciphered in different regions.
But to actually appreciate a joke, and have a good laugh, requires the use of a central pathway in the brain. The finding could explain why some people lose their sense of humour following damage to a particular part of the brain. Laughing was discouraged while scanning was in progress but afterwards each volunteer rated the jokes on a funniness scale of one to five. Areas of the brain known to be involved in the processing of language were active while the subjects processed semantic jokes. Different areas of the brain, involved in speech production, lit up when the subjects deciphered puns.