In a research findings reported in the journal Neuropsychology researchers have explained how the brain works at being able to understand sarcasm.
The study made by scientists from Israel, had experimented with the ability to understand sarcasm by giving their study participants stories dealing with sarcasm and normal dialogues. The study participation consisted of 25 participants with prefrontal-lobe damage, 16 participants with posterior-lobe damage and 17 healthy controls.The findings of the study showed that people with brain damage pertaining to prefrontal lobe were unable to understand sarcasm, while the rest could understand sarcastic comments quite easily. Of the people with brain injury, people who had suffered injury on the right ventromedial area had most difficult time in understanding sarcasm. This are includes that back part of prefrontal cortex, and the cortex on top of the eyes and the inside of the frontal lobes.
The results are quite in consistence with what is known of brain function, like prefrontal cortex being the seat of language and social cognition. The impairment of the ventromedial area leading to inability to understand sarcasm showed that sarcasm this also got to do with understanding social cues, giving empathic response and identifying the right emotion while reacting.
