1. Specialization of Neural Mechanisms Underlying Three-stage model in Humor Processing: An ERP study. FENG, Y. J., CHAN, Y. C., *CHEN, H. C. (2014). SPECIALIZATION OF NEURAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING THE THREE-STAGE MODEL IN HUMOR PROCESSING: AN ERP STUDY. JOURNAL OF NEUROLINGUISTICS, 32, 59-70. DOI:10.1016/J.JNEUROLING.2014.08.007 (SSCI, IF=1.596, RANKING 15/169 IN “LINGUISTICS”)

2. Incongruity Resolution Elaboration N400 P600 LPP N400 is a negative- going wave usually occurs at around 400 ms after stimulus onset. N400 typically stand for semantic violation detection The P600 has been claimed accordingly to reflect various kinds of syntactic processing difficulties and reanalysis monitoring. Generally, the LPP is highly sensitive to the emotional intensity of stimuli and is larger for both pleasant and unpleasant than for neutral stimuli (Cuthbert et al., 2000; Keil et al.,2002; Lang et al., 1997; Schupp et al., 2000; Schupp et al.,2003). We hypothesized that incongruity, resolution and elaboration stage would respectively generate N400, P600 and LPP waves.

3. Design Condition ProcessingExemplar IRESetupPunch line Funny JokeHHH 哪一種動物總是黏在牆壁上？ （ Which type of animal is always attached to the wall? ） Meaning: 海豹（ seal ） Pronunciation: 海報（ poster ） NonsensicalHHLL 海獅和哪一種動物長得很像？ （ Which kind of animal is similar to sea lion? ） UnfunnyLHL 如何測量世界上最高的建築？ （ How do you measure the tallest building in the world? ） In this study, question-answer type jokes were used, and their punch lines only contained two Chinese characters. Thus we could successfully record the ERP when participant started to read punch line.

4. Results The results showed that nonsensical sentences elicited the most negative ERP deflection (N400) between 350 and 500 ms, possibly reflecting incongruity detection in humor. Between 500 and 700 ms, jokes as well as non-jokes elicited a more positive deflection (P600) than did nonsensical sentences, possibly reflecting a reanalysis process during incongruity resolution. Moreover, jokes elicited the most positive slow-wave activity between 800 and 1500 ms, which might have been related to emotional processing during elaboration. Based on these results, we can conclude that the cognitive functions involved in humor processing can be indexed by N400, P600 and LPP.