Mirth and laughter elicited during brain stimulation
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There are few reports of laughter and/or mirth evoked by electrical stimulation of the brain. In this study, we present a patient with intractable epilepsy in whom mirth and laughter was consistently produced during stimulation of the left inferior frontal gyrus (opercular part) using stereotactically placed depth electrodes. A review of the literature shows that cortical sites that produce mirth when stimulated are located in the dominant hemisphere close to language areas or cortical negative motor areas.
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Occasional exceptions to the general trend of null effects in anterior PFC have been reported in isolated case studies.
“Nonetheless, occasional exceptions to this general trend have been reported in isolated case studies (Blanke et al., 2000;Vignal et al., 2000;Vaca et al., 2011;Popa et al., 2016;A. Liu et al., 2020), and the details of effects elicited in the OFC and ACC are also of considerable interest.”
From Does the Prefrontal Cortex Play an Essential Role in Consciousness? Insights from Intracranial Electrical Stimulation of the Human Brain (2021) · cites this paper as Vaca et al., 2011
The Abstract and Discussion (page not provided) describe a single-patient case in which frontal stimulation elicited mirth and laughter, supporting the claim that an isolated case reported a non-null effect. They locate the stimulation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (opercular part), near the anterior insula, rather than identifying it as anterior PFC; that anatomical part of the claim is not established by this paper. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThese studies represent, to the authors' knowledge, the only published reports of iES-elicited effects in lateral PFC regions, not counting motor effects in various frontal motor areas.
“These studies (Blanke et al., 2000;Vignal et al., 2000;Vaca et al., 2011;Popa et al., 2016;A. Liu et al., 2020) represent, to our knowledge, the only published reports of iES-elicited effects in lateral PFC regions (not counting motor effects in various frontal motor areas).”
From Does the Prefrontal Cortex Play an Essential Role in Consciousness? Insights from Intracranial Electrical Stimulation of the Human Brain (2021) · cites this paper as Vaca et al., 2011
Vaca et al. (2011) reported a single case in which stimulation of the posterior VLPFC repeatedly induced a sensation of mirth along with laughter.
“Finally, Vaca et al. (2011) reported a single case in which stimulation of the posterior VLPFC repeatedly induced a sensation of mirth along with laughter.”
From Does the Prefrontal Cortex Play an Essential Role in Consciousness? Insights from Intracranial Electrical Stimulation of the Human Brain (2021) · cites this paper as Vaca et al., 2011
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Cites
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- Authors
- Vaca, G. F., Lüders, H. O., Basha, M. M., & Miller, J. P.
- Affiliations
- University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (US)
- Department of Neurology University Hospitals Case Medical Center Case Western Reserve University Cleveland USA
- Wayne State University (US)
- Venue
- Epileptic Disorders
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2011-12
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 435-440
- ISSN
- 1294-9361 (ISSN-L)
- 1950-6945
- OpenAlex
- W1812676812
- Cited by
- 57
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 1.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Epileptic Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Humor Studies and Applications
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Epilepsy research and treatment
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Neurological disorders and treatments
- Keywords
- mirth, laughter, electrical brain stimulation, drug-resistant epilepsy, inferior frontal gyrus, language areas, motor areas, dominant hemisphere
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Dominance, Cerebral, Electric Stimulation, Electroencephalography, Epilepsy, Female, Frontal Lobe, Humans, Laughter, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Middle Aged, Motor Cortex, Tomography, X-Ray Computed, Neurosurgical Procedures
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