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Researchers Pinpoint Brain's Sarcasm Sensor
LibertarianWackJob writes "Researchers have found the section of the human brain that is responsible for understanding sarcasm.
" I'm sure the comments on this story will be incredibly insightful.
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My brain is obviously not equipped to handle this story.
I'm sure the comments on this story will be incredibly insightful.
Not really, this one will be modded as funny. Oh wait.. you were being sarcastic.
What a really useful discovery.
Report being unable to confirm the discovery of the region in American subjects.
Man, I'm on *fire* today!
Deleted
I'm sure the comments on this story will be incredibly insightful.
He cannot be serious.
Of course a study with around 25 brain damaged people watching movies is a perfect reason to make phrenological claims.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
"ooohh, a sarcasm detector. That's REALLY useful" - Comic Book Guy
In fact, once all the sarcastically deficient have been identified, we will need to lobby to get the sarcastic brain chunk added to the list of donor organs so that everyone can have the opportunity to lead a normal sarcastic life. Be an organ donor, only you can give the gift of sarcasm.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
Scientists also located the area of the brain responsibile for gullibility, and they now have a procedure to remove that section of your brain.
Pulp Audio Weekly - Geek News and Reviews
CBG: Oh yeah, everyone's real happy then.
Lyndsey Nagle: Do I detect a note of sarcasm?
Frink: (With sarcasm detector) Are you kidding? This baby is off
the charts mm-hai.
CBG: A sarcasm detector, that's a real useful invention.
(Sarcasm detector explodes)
char *mySig;
But some brain-damaged people can't comprehend sarcasm...
I keep telling the people who don't get my sarcasm that they're obviously brain damaged, but they don't get that, either.
Which, perhaps, explains all those posts that get modded "Off topic".
Am I the only one who finds it amusing that so far, not a single comment has been moderated "Insightful"?
Laughter is the best medicine, but in certain situations the Heimlich maneuver may be more appropriate.
i wonder how they account for sarcasam missed from cultural differences. a friend of mine did some time in africa with the peace corps, and remembers all of the american humor based on sarcasam just deadpanning; maybe this sector is only developed through cultural trends?
"My heart is in the work." - Andrew Carnegie
My brain is obviously not equipped to handle this story.
You brain is obviously not equipped to be funny. You should take this stuff to the ametuer stand-up circuit; you'll have less time to post on Slashdot.
Wow. I feel like I just exercised my brain! Who knew being so vicious was so healthy? I'm not being a jerk; I'm exercising! Thanks, researchers!
A family member has been diagnosed with mild autism (Asperger's is a specific diagnosis within the broad spectrum of autism) and I can say that this member of my family completely misses any sarcastic comment that hasn't been specifically pointed out as being non-literal in an earlier conversation.
So yes, I'd say the research might very well apply to Asperger's in some way or another.
"Flame away, I wear asbestos underwear"
But some brain-damaged people can't comprehend sarcasm...
We call them mods
The brain area in question should be called the medulla obnoxiosa. In honor of me.
When all you have is an axe, everything looks like a grindstone.
I went to China and they caught sarcasm just fine.
Probably just told you that just so you didn't commit a cultural faux-pas.
Oh, hmm, this topic is on sarcasm, so anything I write will automatically be interpreted backwards But wait, that means that your post meant that actually the Chinese got sarcasm just fine, which means I don't need to post this....
Oh hell, I'm submitting it anyway.
DEREK: Great party, huh? I actually don't know anyone at the party, actually, I'm kinda new to the neighborhood, actually, but my friend Chris said "come to the party, I'll introduce you around, you'll know everybody by the time you leave the party." Chris knows everybody, and soon I'll know everybody! 'Course, Chris didn't show up. So I guess I gotta mingle. So here I am mingling! 'Course, mingling really isn't my game, I'm not really a mingler, per se, I was actually in the corner alone mingling - that means I'm not talking to anyone, actually. I saw you over here, I said "there's a guy by himself, why not go over here, I'll mingle with this guy, this guy looks like a mingler," so hi, I'm Derek, pleased to meet you.
SARCASTIC GUY: Well it certainly is a pleasure to meet YOU, Derek.
DEREK: ...I'm sorry if I bothered you.
SARCASTIC GUY: Oh no, you're not bothering me, Derek, far from it. There's nothing I would rather do than just stand here and chat with you! Y'know - really get to know you?
DEREK: Look, I don't think there's any need to be sarcastic.
SARCASTIC GUY: Oh, I'm not being sarcastic! NOOOO! This is just a little speech impediment. I can't help it!
DEREK: Okay, I've obviously said or done something wrong to upset you, I'm just gonna apologize and be on my way.
SARCASTIC GUY: No, no, no, please stay. It's true. I've talked this way all my life. It's made things very difficult for me.
DEREK: Yeah! Right!
SARCASTIC GUY: Hey! Where ya goin'? Come back! I really wanna be your friend. I'm so lonely.
But this research does serve a useful purpose in Autism/asperger syndrome.
Folks with asperger syndrome commonly have an inability to detect sarcasm and read facial, social cues.
>>By definition, those with AS have a normal IQ and many individuals (although not all), exhibit exceptional skill or talent in a specific area. Because of their high degree of functionality and their naiveté, those with AS are often viewed as eccentric or odd and can easily become victims of teasing and bullying. While language development seems, on the surface, normal, individuals with AS often have deficits in pragmatics and prosody. Vocabularies may be extraordinarily rich and some children sound like "little professors." However, persons with AS can be extremely literal and have difficulty using language in a social context. Read full definition here
- dj
You can trust mainstream media such as Forbes (and Slashduh) to be brain-damaged as well.
"But some brain-damaged people can't comprehend sarcasm, and Israeli researchers think it's because a specific brain region has gone dark. [...]
"People with prefrontal brain damage suffer from difficulties in understanding other people's mental states, and they lack empathy," said study co-author Simone Shamay-Tsoory, a researcher at the University of Haifa. "
DUH!
We've known this at least since Phineas Gage's unfortunate accident with a tamping iron in 1848.
Given that we're talking about work by Shamay-Tsoory, a quick PubMed search says that the identified area is probably somewhere in the right ventromedial prefrontal lobe. That it can be identified by testing e.g. comprehension of sarcasm naturally gets twisted by Forbes/Slashduh, so now it looks like we've got a special Sarcasm Organ.
"Breaking news: Them science guys find out that our breathing is handled by large saccular organs in the thoracic cavity. They're calling 'em "lungs" in medical mumbo-jumbo."
Help savingAmigaOS and a free PowerPC market
I say when sarcasm fails to be detected as such, it's usually the speaker's fault. Why? Becuase the thought process going through the listener's head in an instant is something like this:
1 - Hmmm - that statement seemed like a really dumb thing to say, in direct contradiction of reality.
2 - I wonder why this person would say something so at odds with the truth?
3 - It could be because he literally believes it and is just dumb or delusional, or it could be because he knows better and is trying to make a joke.
4 - If I respect the speaker's intelligence, then I realize it's not serious, and thus a joke.
5 - If I do not respect the speaker's intelligence, then I still think he seriously meant the dumb thing he said.
So the problem is that if I fail to see sarcasm, it's because I don't have reason to respect the speaker's intelligence.
This is why sarcasm doesn't work online, by the way - the speaker is a stranger to you and so you don't know he's smart enough not to believe something dumb, and so step 4 up above doesn't trigger.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
Here's a nut even the collective mind of Google has been unable to crack: Machine recognition of sarcasm.
Take a look at the Huh? Corp site, and notice the counterpoint between the devilishly satirical site content and the dead-serious Google ads.
One cannot underestimate the serious menace posed to contextual ad networks by the unregulated use of sarcasm by ad-network partner sites.
As soon as I finish typing up this comment I plan to file for a provisional patent on "An Automated Method of Determining Sarcasm Content by Using a Naive Baysian Classifier Trained on Slashdot Comments."
If everything you say is insightful and you are saying you are insightful, then you are funny, but if everything you say is insightful, then you are being funny, but insightful... help help, Norman, Co-ordinate!!!
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.