Abstract
The purpose of study is to investigate the neural correlates of gender differences by using aggressive jokes (AJ) and nonaggressive jokes (NAJ). Previous studies indicated that there were gender differences in humor processing involving cognition and emotion (Azim et al., 2005; Kohn et al., 2011). In emotional processing of humor, women exhibit greater activation of mesolimbic regions, including the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), which involves reward circuit and reward expectation (Gur et al., 2011). In cognitive processing of humor, the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), involving language processing, is also activated more in women than in men. Some behavioral studies reveal that men are more like aggressive or sexual content than women, whereas women favor non-sensical or absurd humor structures more than men (Groch, 1974). This study seeks to extend and broaden those study results to the neural basis and understanding whether there are gender different related emotional and cognitive humor processing in distinct contents of humor.