White Matter Tracts Critical for Recognition of Sarcasm

摘要

Sarcasm is commonly used to express criticism in a non-aggressive or humorous way. Failure to understand that the speaker is being sarcastic can lead to important miscommunications. Although numerous studies have identified impaired sarcasm comprehension in neurological impaired patients, few have attempted to identify lesions that lead to impaired sarcasm. Several gray matter structures seem to be critical for processing sarcasm, including right prefrontal cortex, superior temporal cortex, thalamus, and basal ganglia. In this study we tested the hypothesis that percent damage to specific white matter tracts (including those connect the critical gray matter structures), age, and education together predict accuracy in sarcasm comprehension. Using multivariable linear regression, with age, education, and percent damage to each of 8 white matter tracts as independent variables, and percent accuracy on sarcasm recognition as the dependent variable, we developed a model for predicting sarcasm recognition. Percent damage to the sagittal stratum had the greatest weight, and was the only independent predictor of error rate on sarcasm. Results indicate that: (1) sagittal stratum has an important role in the network underlying sarcasm comprehension; (2) sagittal stratum lesions are likely to cause deficits in understanding sarcasm and may require innovative therapies to address this disability.