Title: The Science of Sarcasm? Yeah, Right  | Science   | Smithsonian Magazine
Headings: The Science of Sarcasm? Yeah, Right
The Science of Sarcasm? Yeah, Right
How do humans separate sarcasm from sincerity? Research on the subject is leading to insights about how the mind works. Really
By Richard Chin
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Content: Conditions including autism, closed head injuries, brain lesions and schizophrenia can interfere with the ability to perceive sarcasm. Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco, for example, recently found that people with frontotemporal dementia have difficulty detecting sarcasm. Neuropsychologist Katherine Rankin has suggested that a loss of the ability to pick up on sarcasm could be used as an early warning sign to help diagnose the disease. “ If someone who has the sensitivity loses it, that’s a bad sign,” Rankin says. “ If you suddenly think Stephen Colbert is truly right wing, that’s when I would worry.” Many parts of the brain are involved in processing sarcasm, according to recent brain imaging studies. Rankin has found that the temporal lobes and the parahippocampus are involved in picking up the sarcastic tone of voice. While the left hemisphere of the brain seems to be responsible for interpreting literal statements, the right hemisphere and both frontal lobes seem to be involved in figuring out when the literal statement is intended to mean exactly the opposite, according to a study by researchers at the University of Haifa. Or you could just get a sarcasm detection device. It turns out scientists can program a computer to recognize sarcasm.