Brain activation during sight gags and language-dependent humor. (9/29)

Humor is a hallmark of human discourse. People use it to relieve stress and to facilitate social bonding, as well as for pure enjoyment in the absence of any apparent adaptive value. Although recent studies have revealed that humor acts as an intrinsic reward, which explains why people actively seek to experience and create humor, few have addressed the cognitive aspects of humor. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to differentiate brain activity induced by the hedonic similarities and cognitive differences inherent in 2 kinds of humor: visual humor (sight gags) and language-based humor. Our findings indicate that the brain networks recruited during a humorous experience differ according to the type of humor being processed, with high-level visual areas activated during visual humor and classic language areas activated during language-dependent humor. Our results additionally highlight a common network activated by both types of humor that includes the amygdalar and midbrain regions, which presumably reflect the euphoric component of humor. Furthermore, we found that humor activates anterior cingulate cortex and frontoinsular cortex, 2 regions in the brain that are known to have phylogenetically recent neuronal circuitry. These results suggest that humor may have coevolved with another cognitive specialization of the great apes and humans: the ability to navigate through a shifting and complex social space.  (+info)

The extent and nature of food promotion directed to children in Australian supermarkets. (10/29)

The aim of this study was to describe the nature and amount of sales promotion use on food packaging in selected Australian supermarkets, specifically those directed at children through the use of premium offers, such as giveaways and competitions, and cartoon and movie character promotions. The study also examined the promotion of healthy versus unhealthy foods. Nine supermarkets located across the metropolitan area of Sydney, Australia were surveyed to assess the extent and nature of food promotion directed at children. The number and types of promotions were measured within seven food categories: sweet biscuits, snack foods, confectionery, chips/savoury snacks, cereals, dairy snacks and ice cream. Any foods that utilized promotional tactics were categorized as either healthy or unhealthy, according to set criteria. The study found that within the seven food categories between 9 and 35% of food products used promotional tactics. The use of television, movie celebrities and cartoon characters for promotion was most common, making up 75% of all promotions. Giveaways accounted for 13% of all promotions. When used, giveaways were commonly used in conjunction with another promotional method. Data from this study also confirmed that 82% of all food promotions were for unhealthy foods and only 18% were used to promote healthy foods. However, for dairy snacks and ice cream the majority of promotions, 99 and 65%, respectively, were healthier choices. This was the first study to describe the extent and nature of food promotions used in supermarkets. The promotion of unhealthy foods in supermarkets is common and is one of the many factors contributing to today's obesity promoting environment. Further research is required to determine the impact of food promotions on children's dietary intake, and to determine the most effective ways to restrict the promotion of unhealthy foods.  (+info)

Social regulation of affective experience of humor. (11/29)

The element of surprise, a necessary condition for the experience of humor, often derives from the fact that the alternative interpretation/resolution offered by the punch line of a joke is physically or socially forbidden. Children's humor typifies violation of physical norms, whereas adult humor typically pushes the boundaries of social norms. Excess norm violation, to the point of offending, can attenuate the experience of humor/mirth. To examine the neural basis of regulation of affective experience of humor by social norms, we scanned 16 normal subjects while they viewed a series of cartoons that varied in funniness and social acceptability. Behavioral results indicated two separate groups of subjects, those who found the cartoons less offensive and those who found them more offensive. In the group that found the jokes more offensive, there was a negative correlation between funniness and social inappropriateness. In this group, the corresponding Humor by Social inappropriateness interaction during functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed enhanced activation in the right hippocampus along with relative deactivation in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). By contrast, the Funniness by Social appropriateness interaction resulted in activation in the VMPFC and relative deactivation in the right hippocampus. These results suggest that the regulation of humor by social norms involves reciprocal response patterns between VMPFC and hippocampus regions implicated in contextual regulation of behavior and memory, respectively.  (+info)

The value of animations in biology teaching: a study of long-term memory retention. (12/29)

Previous work has established that a narrated animation is more effective at communicating a complex biological process (signal transduction) than the equivalent graphic with figure legend. To my knowledge, no study has been done in any subject area on the effectiveness of animations versus graphics in the long-term retention of information, a primary and critical issue in studies of teaching and learning. In this study, involving 393 student responses, three different animations and two graphics-one with and one lacking a legend-were used to determine the long-term retention of information. The results show that students retain more information 21 d after viewing an animation without narration compared with an equivalent graphic whether or not that graphic had a legend. Students' comments provide additional insight into the value of animations in the pedagogical process, and suggestions for future work are proposed.  (+info)

Inattentional blindness and augmented-vision displays: effects of cartoon-like filtering and attended scene. (13/29)

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Children taking risks: the association with cocaine and other drug use by young adulthood. (14/29)

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Persuasive food marketing to children: use of cartoons and competitions in Australian commercial television advertisements. (15/29)

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Inattentional blindness with the same scene at different scales. (16/29)

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