OT: Discovery of 'irony' brain areas
Therion Ware
IT says here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4566319.stm
Discovery of 'irony' brain areas
Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that
comprehend sarcasm - honestly.
By comparing healthy people and those with damage to different parts
of the brain, they found the front of the brain was a key to
understanding irony.
Damage to any of three different areas could render individuals unable
to understand sarcastic comments.
The Israeli team from Haifa University told Neuropsychology how their
findings might help to explain autism features.
Sarcasm
Autistic children can have problems interpreting irony as well as
other social cues such as emotions.
If someone has a problem understanding a social situation, he or she
may fail to understand the literal language
Researcher Dr Simone Shamay-Tsoory
This same skill is sometimes lost in people with brain damage,
suggesting similar brain regions may be involved in autism.
Brain scan studies of autistic children have shown that they have
different activity in the frontal lobe to other children.
Dr Simone Shamay-Tsoory and colleagues studied 25 people with
prefrontal lobe damage, 16 with damage to the posterior lobe of the
brain and 17 healthy volunteers.
They played the study participants tape-recorded stories, some
sarcastic and some neutral.
An example of sarcasm was "Joe came to work, and instead of beginning
to work, he sat down to rest. His boss noticed and said to Joe 'don't
work too hard.'"
In fact, what Joe's boss actually meant by his comment was "you are a
slacker".
In the neutral version Joe came to work and began work immediately.
His boss made the same "don't work too hard" comment, but this time,
he actually meant that Joe was a hard worker.
The volunteers who had damage to their prefrontal lobes were unable to
correctly interpret the sarcastic story, while all of the other
participants could.
Anatomy
Dr Shamay-Tsoory said this fitted with what is already known about the
anatomy of the brain.
She said language areas on the left hand side of the brain interpret
the literal meaning of words and the frontal lobes and the right side
of the brain understand the social and emotional context.
An area called the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex then
integrates the literal meaning with the social/emotional context,
which will reveal any sarcasm.
"A lesion in each region in the network can impair sarcasm, because if
someone has a problem understanding a social situation, he or she may
fail to understand the literal language," she said.
A spokeswoman from the National Autistic Society said: "The causes of
autism are still being investigated.
"Many experts believe that the pattern of behaviour from which autism
is diagnosed may not result from a single cause.
"There is strong evidence to suggest that autism can be caused by a
variety of physical factors, all of which affect brain development."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4566319.stm
Published: 2005/05/23 00:10:18 GMT
© BBC MMV
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Ron O
Ask them to have the subjects read TO and see how often the area is
activated in creationists or in scientists and creationists that claim
to be scientists like Dembski or Behe. That could tell us something
about why the creationists cough up the fur balls that they do.
Ron Okimoto
unrestra...@hotmail.com
The biblical litaralists I grew up with seemed to find it impossible to
recognize metaphor as a legitimate way of expressing truth. When they
hear someone say "That means X" they act as though they hear "That
isn't true."
They are very concrete thinkers. (As are some of my fellow atheists, I
think.) Irony is somehow related to this, in a way I have trouble
pinning down.
Kermit
John Vreeland
>
>Ask them to have the subjects read TO and see how often the area is
>activated in creationists or in scientists and creationists that claim
>to be scientists like Dembski or Behe. That could tell us something
>about why the creationists cough up the fur balls that they do.
>
>Ron Okimoto
That is certainly not facetious.
I don't know about Behe, but Dembski seems quite unable to sense
irony, though it could simply be a lack of circumspection in his case.
Pagano, OTOH, is clearly irony-impaired, but again it simply may be
due to lack of understanding.
Is there a connection between the need for a literal understanding of
scripture and irony-insensibility?
__
To be inerrant is to never know the truth.
John Vreeland - replace "eye-tripoli" with the appropriate tetragrammaton
Boikat
"Therion Ware" <autod...@city-of-dis.com> wrote in message
news:2r7391lpvncgv44mk...@4ax.com...
So...Creationists may be suffering from some form of brain damage. Is that
really news-worthy?
Boikat
--
<42><
Richard Harter
<autod...@city-of-dis.com> wrote:
>
>IT says here:
>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4566319.stm
>
>
>Discovery of 'irony' brain areas
>
>Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that
>comprehend sarcasm - honestly.
Yeah, sure they did.
Richard Harter, c...@tiac.net
http://home.tiac.net/~cri, http://www.varinoma.com
Save the Earth now!!
It's the only planet with chocolate.
Deadrat
"Boikat" <boi...@bellsouthnospam.net> wrote in message
news:iGlke.16830$8S5....@bignews3.bellsouth.net...
Well, of course not. Anybody can evaluate the symptoms (echolalia, the
word salad explanations, concrete and magical thinking, faulty logic, the
aggression, etc.) But it's good to have experimental evidence that points
to the actual site in the brain that's damaged.
Deadrat
> Boikat
> --
> <42><
>
Andrew Arensburger
> Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that
> comprehend sarcasm - honestly.
> By comparing healthy people and those with damage to different parts
> of the brain, they found the front of the brain was a key to
> understanding irony.
Perhaps further research will identify the region that allows
people to grasp the distinction between sarcasm and irony. (And before
anyone complains, I'm not sure mine's functioning at 100%.)
I propose that a lesion of this area be named Morrisette's
Disease.
--
Andrew Arensburger, Systems guy University of Maryland
arensb.no-...@umd.edu Office of Information Technology
You buttered your bread, now lie in it.
floyd
It's the first step in finding a cure, after all, so I'd be willing to
bet there will soon be a ban on federal funding for further research.
John Wilkins
> On Mon, 23 May 2005 09:19:40 GMT, Therion Ware
> <autod...@city-of-dis.com> wrote:
>
>
>>IT says here:
>>
>>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4566319.stm
>>
>>
>>Discovery of 'irony' brain areas
>>
>>Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that
>>comprehend sarcasm - honestly.
>
>
> Yeah, sure they did.
>
--
John S. Wilkins, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Biohumanities Project
University of Queensland - Blog: evolvethought.blogspot.com
"Darwin's theory has no more to do with philosophy than any other
hypothesis in natural science." Tractatus 4.1122
Phillip Brown
>
> IT says here:
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4566319.stm
>
>
> Discovery of 'irony' brain areas
>
> Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that
> comprehend sarcasm - honestly.
>
So now americans will know exactly which part they need for their
transplant.
--
phillip brown
"shit doesn't just happen. there is always an ass-hole involved"
Richard Harter
<j.wil...@uq.edu.au> wrote:
>Richard Harter wrote:
>> On Mon, 23 May 2005 09:19:40 GMT, Therion Ware
>> <autod...@city-of-dis.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>IT says here:
>>>
>>>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4566319.stm
>>>
>>>
>>>Discovery of 'irony' brain areas
>>>
>>>Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that
>>>comprehend sarcasm - honestly.
>>
>>
>> Yeah, sure they did.
>>
>Like you'd know.
Do I like yew wood? No.
John Wilkins
> On Tue, 24 May 2005 07:33:18 +1000, John Wilkins
> <j.wil...@uq.edu.au> wrote:
>
>
>>Richard Harter wrote:
>>
>>>On Mon, 23 May 2005 09:19:40 GMT, Therion Ware
>>><autod...@city-of-dis.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>IT says here:
>>>>
>>>>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4566319.stm
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Discovery of 'irony' brain areas
>>>>
>>>>Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that
>>>>comprehend sarcasm - honestly.
>>>
>>>
>>>Yeah, sure they did.
>>>
>>
>>Like you'd know.
>
>
> Do I like yew wood? No.
>
Chris Thompson
news:d6ub7v$2e77$1...@bunyip2.cc.uq.edu.au:
> Richard Harter wrote:
>> On Tue, 24 May 2005 07:33:18 +1000, John Wilkins
>> <j.wil...@uq.edu.au> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Richard Harter wrote:
>>>
>>>>On Mon, 23 May 2005 09:19:40 GMT, Therion Ware
>>>><autod...@city-of-dis.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>IT says here:
>>>>>
>>>>>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4566319.stm
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Discovery of 'irony' brain areas
>>>>>
>>>>>Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that
>>>>>comprehend sarcasm - honestly.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Yeah, sure they did.
>>>>
>>>
>>>Like you'd know.
>>
>>
>> Do I like yew wood? No.
>>
> I bow in deference. I was taking a long shot.
>
Yo, man. Quit stringing us along.
--
Chris
aa#2186