Decoding brain basis of laughter and crying in natural scenes
Lauri Nummenmaa,
Tuulia Malèn,
Sanaz Nazari-Farsani,
Kerttu Seppälä,
Lihua Sun,
Severi Santavirta,
Henry K. Karlsson,
Matthew Hudson,
Jussi Hirvonen,
Mikko Sams,
Sophie Scott,
Vesa Putkinen
Affiliations
Lauri Nummenmaa
Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Finland; Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Finland; Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland; Corresponding author.
Tuulia Malèn
Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Finland; Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Finland
Sanaz Nazari-Farsani
Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Finland; Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Finland
Kerttu Seppälä
Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Finland; Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Finland; Department of Medical Physics, Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Finland
Lihua Sun
Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Finland; Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Finland
Severi Santavirta
Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Finland; Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Finland
Henry K. Karlsson
Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Finland; Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Finland
Matthew Hudson
Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Finland; Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Finland; School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK; Brain Research & Imaging Centre, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK
Jussi Hirvonen
Department of Radiology, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland; Medical Imaging Center, Department of Radiology, Tampere University and Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland
Mikko Sams
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science, Aalto University, Finland
Sophie Scott
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, United Kingdom
Vesa Putkinen
Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Finland; Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Finland
Laughter and crying are universal signals of prosociality and distress, respectively. Here we investigated the functional brain basis of perceiving laughter and crying using naturalistic functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) approach. We measured haemodynamic brain activity evoked by laughter and crying in three experiments with 100 subjects in each. The subjects i) viewed a 20-minute medley of short video clips, and ii) 30 min of a full-length feature film, and iii) listened to 13.5 min of a radio play that all contained bursts of laughter and crying. Intensity of laughing and crying in the videos and radio play was annotated by independent observes, and the resulting time series were used to predict hemodynamic activity to laughter and crying episodes. Multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) was used to test for regional selectivity in laughter and crying evoked activations. Laughter induced widespread activity in ventral visual cortex and superior and middle temporal and motor cortices. Crying activated thalamus, cingulate cortex along the anterior-posterior axis, insula and orbitofrontal cortex. Both laughter and crying could be decoded accurately (66–77% depending on the experiment) from the BOLD signal, and the voxels contributing most significantly to classification were in superior temporal cortex. These results suggest that perceiving laughter and crying engage distinct neural networks, whose activity suppresses each other to manage appropriate behavioral responses to others’ bonding and distress signals.
