Abstract
Research has shown that individuals with autism and Asperger syndrome are impaired in humor appreciation, although anecdotal and parental reports provide some evidence to the contrary. This paper reviews the cognitive and affective processes involved in humor and recent neurological findings. It examines humor expression and understanding in autism and Asperger syndrome in the context of the main psychological theories (Theory of Mind, Executive Functions, Weak Central Coherence and Laterization models) and associated neural substrates. In the concluding sections, examples of humor displayed by individuals with autism/Asperger syndrome which appear to challenge the above theories are analyzed and areas for further research are suggested.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Damasio, H., & Damasio, A. R. (1994). Impaired recognition of emotion in facial expressions follow-ing bilateral damage to the human amygdala. Nature, 372, 669–672.
Aggleton, J. P. (1992). The Amygdala:Neurobiological Aspects of Emotion, Memory, and Mental Dysfunction. New York: Wi-ley-Liss.
American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statisti-cal manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Asperger, H. (1944). Die “Autistischen Psychopathen” im Kin-desalter. Archiv fuer Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 117, 76–136.
Bachevalier, J. (1994). Medial temporal structures and autism:a review of clinical and experimental findings. Neuropsycholo-gia, 32, 627–648.
Bakeman, R., & Adamson, L. (1984). Co-ordinating attention to people and objects in mother-infant and peer-infant interac-tion. Child Development, 55, 1278–1289.
Baron-Cohen, S. (1988). Social and pragmatic de cits in autism: cognitive or affective? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 18, 379 —402.
Baron-Cohen, S. (1997). Are children with autism superior at Folk Physics? In H. Wellmann, & K. Inagaki (Eds.), Chil-dren's Theories. San Francisco, DA: Jossey-Bass.
Baron-Cohen, S. (2003). The essential difference. Men, women and the extreme male brain. London: Penguin Press.
Baron-Cohen, S., Bolton, P., Wheelwright, S., Short, L., Mead, G., Smith, A., & Scahill, V. (1998). Autism occurs more often in families of physicists, engineers, and mathema-ticians. Autism, 2, 296 —301.
Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a ‘theory of mind’ ? Cognition, 21, 37–46.
Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1986). Mechanical, behavioral and intentional understanding of picture stories in autistic children. British Journal of Developmental Psychol-ogy, 4, 113–125.
Baron-Cohen S., Ring, H. A., Wheelwright, S. Bullmore, E. T, Brammer, M. J., Simmons, A., & Williams, C. R. (1999). Social intelligence in the normal and autistic brain:an fMRI study. European Journal of Neuroscience, 11, 1891 —1898.
Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Hill, H., Raste, J., & Plumb, I. (2001). The “Reading of the Mind in the Eyes” Test revised version:A study with normal adults, and adults with Asperger syndrome or High-functioning Autism. Jour-nal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42, 241 —251.
Bergson, H. L. (1911). Laughter:An essay on the meaning of the comic. New York: Macmillan.
Berthier, M. L., Bayes, A., & Tolosa, E. S. (1993). Magnetic res-onance imaging in patients with concurrent Tourette's disor-der and Asperger's syndrome. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 32, 633–639.
Bihrle, A. M., Brownell, H. H., Powelson, J. A., & Gardner H. (1986). Comprehension of humorous and non-humorous materials by left and right brain-damaged patients. Brain and Cognition, 5, 399–411.
Bowler, D. M. (1992). “Theory of Mind” in Asperger's syn-drome. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 33, 877–893.
Bowler, D. M., Gardiner, J. M., & Grice, S. J. (2000). Episodic memory and remembering in adults with Asperger syn-drome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorder, 30, 295–304.
Brothers, L., & Ring, B. (1992). A neuroethological framework for the representation of minds. Journal of Cognitive Neuro-science, 4, 107–118.
Brownell, H., & Gardner, H. (1988). Neuropsychological insights into humor. In J. Durant, & J. Miller (Eds.), Laughing Mat-ters:A Serious Look at Humor (pp. 17 —34). New York: Longman.
Brownell, H., Griffin, R. Winner, E., Friedman, O., & Happé, F. (2000). Cerebral lateralization and theory of mind. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg, & D. J. Cohen (Eds.),. Understanding other minds. Perspectives from Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (2nd ed). Oxford:University Press.
Brownell, H., Michel, D. Powelson, J., & Gardner H. (1983). Surprise but not coherence:sensitivity to verbal humor in right-hemisphere patients. Brain & Language, 18, 20 —27.
Brownell, H., Pincus, D., Blum, A., Rehak, A., & Winner, E. (1997). The effects of right-hemisphere brain damage on patients' use of terms of personal reference. Brain and Lan-guage, 57, 60 —79.
Bruner, J., & Sherwood, V. (1976). Early rule structure:the case of peekaboo. In J. Bruner, A. Jolly, & K. Sylva (Eds.), Play: its role in evolution and development (pp. 277–285). Har-mondsworth:Penguin.
Chiron, C., Leboyer, M., Leon, F., Jambaque, I., Nuttin, C., & Syrota, A. (1995). SPECT of the brain in childhood autism: evidence for a lack of normal hemispheric asymmetry. Devel-opmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 37, 849–860.
Courchesne, E., Townsend, J. Akshoomo., N. A., et al. (1994). A new finding:impairment in shifting attention in autistic and cerebellar patients. In S. H. Broman, & J. Grafman, (Eds.), A typical cognitive de cits in developmental disorders: implications for brain function (pp. 101–137). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Craig, J., & Baron-Cohen, S. (1999). Creativity and imagination in autism and Asperger Syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 29, 319–326.
Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes' error: emotion, reason and the human brain. New York: Grosset/Putnam.
Damasio, A. R., & Maurer, R. G. (1978). A neurological model for childhood autism. Archives of Neurology, 35, 777–786.
Darwin, C. (1872). The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals. London: William Pickering.
Dawson, G. (1983). Lateralized brain dysfunction in autism:evi-dence from the Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological battery. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 13, 269–286.
Dunn, J. (1988). The beginnings of social understanding. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Dunn, J., Brown, J., Slomkowski, C., Tesla, C., & Youngblade, L. (1991). Young children's understanding of other people's feel-ings and beliefs:individual differences and their antecedents. Child Development, 62, 1352–1366.
Eisenmajer, R., & Prior, M. (1991). Cognitive linguistic correlates of theory of mind ability in autistic children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 351–364.
Ellis, H. D., Ellis, D. M., Fraser, W., & Deb, S. (1994) A preli-minary study of right hemisphere cognitive de cits and impaired social judgments among young people with Asper-ger syndrome. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 3, 255–266.
Everard, M. P. (1976). Mildly Autistic People and their Problems. Paper presented at the International Symposium on Autism, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Fein, D., Humes, M., Kaplan, E., Lucci, D., & Waterhouse, L. (1984). The question of left hemisphere dysfunction in infan-tile autism. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 258–281.
Fitzgerald, M. (2000). Did Ludwig Wittgenstein have Asperger's syndrome? European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 9, 61–65.
Freud, S. (1905). Jokes and their relation to the unconscious. Har-mondsworth: Penguin Books.
Frith, U. (1989). Autism:Explaining the Enigma. Oxford: Black-well.
Frith, U. (1991). Autism and Asperger syndrome. Cambridge, UK:Cambridge University Press.
Frith, U., & Happé, F. (1994). Autism:Beyond “theory of mind”. Cognition, 50, 115–132.
Frith, U., Happé, F., & Siddons, F. (1994). Autism and theory of mind in everyday life. Social Development, 3, 108–124.
Fry, W. (2002). Humor and the brain:A selective review. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 3, 305–333.
Gardner, H., Ling, P. K., Flamm, L., & Silverman, J. (1975). Comprehension and appreciation of humorous material fol-lowing brain damage. Brain, 98, 399–412.
Goel, F., & Dolan, R. (2001). The functional anatomy of humor: Segregating cognitive and a. ective components. Nature Neu-roscience, 4, 237–238.
Grandin, T. (1996). Thinking in pictures. New York: Vintage.
Gunter, H. L., Ghaziuddin, M., & Ellis, H. D. (2002). Asperger syndrome:tests of right hemisphere functioning and inter-hemispheric communication. Journal of Autism and Develop-mental Disorders, 32, 263–281.
Happé, F. (1993). Communicative competence and theory of mind in autism:a test of relevance theory. Cognition, 48, 101–119.
Happé, F. (1994). An advanced test of theory of mid:under-standing of story characters' thoughts and feelings by able autistic, mentally handicapped and normal children and adults. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24, 129–154.
Happé, F. (1995). The role of age and verbal ability in the theory of mind task performance of subjects with autism. Child Development, 66, 843–855.
Happé, F. (1997). Central coherence and theory of mind in aut-ism;reading homographs in context. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 15, 1–2.
Happé, F. (1999). Autism:Cognitive de cit or cognitive style? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 216–222.
Happé, F., Brownell, H., & Winner, E. (1999). Acquired theory of mind impairments following right hemisphere stroke. Cog-nition, 70, 211–240.
Hobson, P. (1989). On sharing experiences. Development and Psychopathology, 1, 197–203.
Howlin, P. (2003). Outcome in high-functioning adults with aut-ism with and without early language delays:implications for di. erentiation between autism and Asperger syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 33, 3–13.
Hughes, C., Russell, J., & Robbins, T. W. (1994). Evidence for executive dysfunction in autism. Neuropsychologia, 32, 477–492.
Hurlburt, R. T., Happé, F., & Frith, U. (1994). Sampling the form of inner experience in three adults with Asperger syn-drome. Psychological Medicine, 24, 385–395.
Jolliffe T., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2000). Linguistic processing in high-functioning adults with autism or Asperger's syndrome. Is global coherence impaired? Psychological Medicine, 30, 1169–1187.
Jordan, R. R., & Powell, S. D. (1995). Understanding and teach-ing children with autism. New York: Wiley.
Just, M. A., Carpenter, P., Keller, T., Eddy, W., & Thulborn K. (1996). Brain activation modulated by sentence comprehen-sion. Science, 274, 115–116.
Kaland N., et al. (2002). A new ‘advanced test of theory of mind: evidence from children and adolescents with Asperger syn-drome. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43, 517–528.
Kanner, L. (1946). Irrelevant and metaphorical language in early childhood autism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 103, 242–246.
Klin, A., Volkmar, F. R., Sparrow, S. S. (Eds.) (2000). Asperger syndrome. New York: Guilford Press.
Klin, A., Volkmar, F. R., Sparrow, S. S., Cicchetti, D. V., & Rourke, B. P. (1995). Validity and neuropsychological char-acterization of Asperger syndrome:convergence with nonver-bal learning disabilities syndrome. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 36, 1127–1140.
Kling A. S., & Brothers, L. A. (1992). The amygdala and social behavior. In J. P. Aggleton (Ed.), The amygdala:neurobio-logical aspects of emotion, memory and mental dysfunction. (pp. 353–377). New York: Wiley-Liss.
Koestler, A. (1964). The act of creation. New York: Dell.
Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. (1996). Fundamentals of human neuro-psychology (4th edn.). New York: W. H. Freeman.
Lampert, M. D., & Ervin-Tripp, S. M. (1998). Exploring para-digms:The study of gender and sense of humor near the end of the 20th century. In W. Ruch (Ed.), The Sense of Humor: Explorations of a Personality Characteristic (pp. 231–270). New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Leekam, S. (1991). Jokes and lies:Children's understanding of intentional falsehood. In A. Whiten (Ed.), Natural theories of mind (pp. 159–174). Oxford: Blackwell.
Leekham, S., Libby, S., Wing, L., Gould, J., & Gillberg, C. (2000). Comparison of ICD-10 and Gillberg's criteria for As-perger syndrome. Autism:International Journal of Research and Practice, 4, 11–28.
Lefcourt, H. M., & Martin, R. A. (1986). Humor and life stress: antidote to adversity. New York: Springer Verlag.
McEvoy, R. E., Rogers, S. J., & Pennington, B. F. (1993). Execu-tive function and social communication de cits in young autistic children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 34, 563–578.
McGhee, P. (1979). Humor:Its Origin and Development. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Company.
Mesibov, G., & Stephens, J. (1990). Perceptions of popularity among a group of high functioning adults with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 20, 33–43.
Mesibov, G. B. (1992). Treatment issues with high-functioning adolescents and adults with autism. In E. Schopler, & G. B. Mesibov (Eds.), High-Functioning Individuals with Autism (pp. 143–145). New York: Plenum.
Miller, J. N., & Ozono., S. (2000). The external validity of Asperger Disorder:Lack of evidence from the domain of neuropsychology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 227–238.
Millward, C., Powell, S., Messer, D., & Jordan, R. (2000). Recall for self and other in autism:Children's memory for events experienced by themselves and their peers. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30, 15–28.
Minshew, N., Goldstein, G., & Siegel, D. (1995). Speech and lan-guage in high-functioning autistic individuals. Neuropsychol-ogy, 9, 161–255.
Morreall, J. (1989). Enjoying incongruity. Humor:International Journal of Humor Research, 2, 1–18.
Mundy, P., Sigman, M., & Kasari, C. (1993). The theory of mind and joint attention de cits in autism. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Understanding other minds:Perspectives from autism (pp. 181–203). New York: Oxford University Press.
Nahemow, L. (1986). Humor as a data base for the study of aging. In L. Nahemow, K. A. McCluskey-Fawcett, & P. E. McGhee (Eds.), Humor and aging (pp. 3–26). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
Ozono., S., Pennington, B. F., & Rogers, S. J. (1991). Executive function deficits in high-functioning autistic individuals: Relationship to theory of mind. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 32, 1081–1105.
Ozono., S., Rogers, & Pennington, B. (1991). Asperger's syn-drome:Evidence of an empirical distinction from high-func-tioning autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 32, 1107–1122.
Pennington, B. F., & Ozono., S. (1996). Executive functions and developmental psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37, 51–81.
Paulos, J. A. (1980). Mathematics and Humor. Chicago: Univer-sity of Chicago Press.
Piven, J., Arndt, S., Bailey, J., Havercamp, S., Andreasen, N. C., & Palmer, P. (1995). An MRI study of brain size in autism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 1145–1149.
Powell, S. D., & Jordan, R. R. (1993). Being subjective about autistic thinking and learning to learn. Educational Psychol-ogy, 13.
Prior, M. R., & Hoffmann, W. (1990). Brief report:Neuropsy-chological testing of autistic children through and explora-tion with frontal lobe tests. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 20, 581–590.
Raskin, V. (1985). Semantic Mechanisms of Humor. Boston: D. Reidel.
Reddy, V. (1991). Playing with others' expectations:teasing and mucking about in the rst year. In A. Whiten (Ed.), Natural theories of mind. Oxford: Blackwell.
Reddy, V., Williams, E., & Vaughan A. (2002). Sharing humor and laughter in autism and Down's syndrome. British Jour-nal of Psychology, 93, 219–242.
Ricks, D., & Wing, L. (1975). Language, communication and the use of symbols in normal and autistic children. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 5, 191–221.
Rinehart, N. J., Bradshaw, J. L., Brereton, A. V., & Tonge, B. J. (2002). Lateralization in individuals with high-functioning autism and Asperger's disorder:A frontostriatal model. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 32, 321–332.
Rourke, B. (1989). Nonverbal learning disabilities:The syndrome and the model. Guilford Press: New York.
Ruch, W., McGhee, P., & Hehl F. J. (1990). Age differences in the enjoyment of incongruity-resolution and nonsense humor during adulthood. Psychology and Aging, 5, 348–355.
Rumsey, J. M. (1985). Conceptual problem-solving in highly ver-bal, nonretarded autistic men. Journal of Autism and Devel-opmental Disorders, 15, 23–36.
Schacter, D. L., Curran, T., Galluccio, L., Milberg, W. P., & Bates, J. (1996). False recognition and the right frontal lobe: a case study. Neuropsychologia, 34, 793–808.
Schopler, E. Mesibov, G. B., & Kunce, L. J. (1998). Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism? New York: Plenum.
St. James, P. J., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (1994). An observational study of humor in autism and down syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 14, 603–617.
Selfe, L. (1983). Normal and anomalous representational drawing ability in children. London: Academic Press.
Shammi, P., & Stuss D. T. (1999). Humor appreciation:a role of the right frontal lobe. Brain, 4, 657–666.
Sparrevohn, R., & Howie, P. M. (1995). Theory of mind in chil-dren with autistic disorder:Evidence of developmental pro-gression and the role of verbal ability. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 36, 249–263.
Sroufe, L. A., & Waters, E. (1976). The ontogenesis of smiling and laughter:A perspective on the organization of develop-ment in infancy. Psychological Review, 83, 173–189.
Stern, D. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant. New York: Basic Books.
Stuss, D. T., & Benson, D. F. (1986). The frontal lobes. New York: Raven Press.
Stuss, D. T., Picton, T. W., & Alexander, M. P. (2001). Conscious-ness, self-awareness and the frontal lobes. In S. Salloway, P. Malloy, & J. Duffy (Eds.). The frontal lobes and neuropsy-chiatric illness. Washington: American Psychiatric Press.
Suls, J. M. (1972). A two-stage model for the appreciation of jokes and cartoons:an information-processing analysis. In J. H. Goldstein & P. E. McGhee (Eds.) The psychology of humor:theoretical perspectives and empirical issues (pp. 81–100). New York: Academic Press.
Tager-Flusberg, H. (1981). On the nature of linguistic functioning in early infantile autism. Journal of Autism and Developmen-tal Disorders, 11, 45–56.
Tager-Flusberg, H. (1991). Semantic processing in the free recall of autistic children:Further evidence for a cognitive deficit. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 417–430.
Tager-Flusberg, H. (1993). What language reveals about the understanding of minds in children with autism. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg, & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Understanding other minds:perspectives from autism. Oxford University Press.
Tager-Flusberg, H. (1997). Language acquisition and theory of mind:contributions from the study of autism. In L. B. Ad-amson, & M. A. Romski (Eds.), Research on communication and language disorders:contributions to theories of language development. Baltimore, MD: Paul Brookes publishing.
Tulving, E., Kapur, S., Craik, F. I., Moscovitch, M., & Houle, S. (1994). Hemispheric encoding/retrieval asymmetry in epi-sodic memory:positron emission tomography findings [Review ]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, 91, 2016–2020.
Van Bourgondien, M. E., & Mesibov, G. B. (1987). Humor in high functioning autistic adults. Journal of Autism and Devel-opmental Disorders, 17, 417–424.
Voeller, K. S. (1986). Right-hemisphere de cit syndrome in chil-dren. American Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 1004–1009.
Volkmar, F., Klin, A., Schultz, R., Bronen, R., Maranas, W., Sparrow, S., & Cohen, D. (1996). Grand rounds:Asperger syndrome. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 35, 118–123.
Wapner, W., Hamby, S., & Gardner, H. (1981). The role of the right hemisphere in the apprehension of complex linguistic materials. Brain and Language, 14, 15–33.
Weintraub, S., & Mesulam, M. M. (1983). Developmental learn-ing disabilities of the right hemisphere:Emotional, interper-sonal, and cognitive components. Archives of Neurology, 40, 463–468.
Werth, A., Perkins, M., & Boucher, J. (2001). ‘Here's the wavery looming up’. Verbal humor in a woman with high-function-ing autism. Autism, 5, 111–125.
Wheeler, M. A., Stuss, D. T., & Tulving, E. (1997). Toward a theory of episodic memory:The frontal lobes and autonoetic consciousness. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 331–354.
Wing. L. (1996). The Autistic Spectrum:A Guide for Parents and Professionals. London: Constable.
Winner, E., & Gardner, H. (1977). The comprehension of meta-phor in brain damaged patients. Brain, 100, 717–729.
Wittgenstein, L. (1953). The philosophical investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.
Wittgenstein, L. (1958). Remarks on the foundations of mathe-matics. New York: McMillan.
Young, A. W., Aggleton, J. P., Hellawell, D. J., Johnson, M., Broks, P., & Haney, J. R. (1995). Face processing impair-ments after amygdalotomy, Brain, 118, 15–24.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lyons, V., Fitzgerald, M. Humor in Autism and Asperger Syndrome. J Autism Dev Disord 34, 521–531 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-004-2547-8
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-004-2547-8