Laughing Matter: Finding the Roots of Humor in the Brain.

 

 Recently, a team of researchers scanned the brains of professional comedians to identify the brain activity involved in telling jokes. They found that compared to regular people, professional comedians had more brain activity in regions involved in producing humor.
In Los Angeles, they had many professional comedians but also amateurs that they could compare to. They then put the volunteers in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine and showed them cartoon pictures with no captions. Each participant was then asked to write a humorous caption, a neutral caption that was not funny or no caption. The result? These scans showed differences in the pleasure centers of the brain, which are thought to be involved in appreciating humor. The normal people showed the most activity in these regions, the amateurs showed a little less, and the professionals showed the least amount. Although, professional comedians showed the most activity in regions of the brain's temporal lobe, which is where the scientists think jokes are made.
The scientists also had another group of people rate the funniness of the jokes, and found that funnier jokes were linked to more brain activity in the humor areas of the listeners. In other words, "you amplify the activity, you amplify the funniness," Amir said.
 http://www.livescience.com/48775-humor-brain-activity.html
1.) Why do YOU think that professional comedians have less activity in the part of the brain that makes you appreciate humor?
2.) Why do you think that  pleasure centers died away more quickly in the brains of the professional comedians than in the brains of the other participants?