UNDERSTANDING SARCASM Matters

 Researchers (University of California) say sarcasm is important in social interaction. Subsequently, people who don’t get sarcasm may have some damage in a part of their right brain, meaning they cannot respond in socially appropriate ways. Researchers Katherine P. Rankin found that the part of the brain lost among those who failed to perceive sarcasm was not in the left hemisphere of the brain, which specializes in language and social interactions, but in a part of the right hemisphere previously identified as important only to detecting contextual background changes in visual tests. Conditions including autism, closed head injuries, brain lesions, and schizophrenia can interfere with the ability to perceive sarcasm.