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Article: The brain's humor zone.(impact of frontal lobe injury on brain's perception of humor)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- U.S. News & World Report
- Article date:
- April 12, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 All rights reserved. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Just in time for April Fool's Day, researchers have identified a brain area that separates people who savor the wordplay of Dorothy Parker and Woody Allen from those who guffaw only at the slapstick antics of the Three Stooges. It's what makes some people smile at this sign in a Hong Kong tailor's shop: "Please have a fit upstairs."
There's a 2-inch-by-3-inch patch of tissue in the brain's right frontal lobe that seems to be the key, according to Donald Stuss and Prathiba Shammi, two neuropsychologists who reported their find in the April issue of the journal Brain. After examining 21 people with small lesions in various brain parts as a result of strokes and ...