Figure 1. Correlation between changes of prefrontal-posterior EEG coherence in response to the perception of other people’s crying and use of dark (“laughing-at”) humour.

Coherence changes in the right hemisphere (beta frequency range) relative to neutral stimulation. The plot shows standardised residuals (Δcoh; see Methods section). Negative scores of Δcoh denote a relative decrease of prefrontal-posterior coherence (more opened perceptual gate), positive scores denote an increase (gate more closed). “Laughing-at” humour comprises the styles cynicism, sarcasm, and irony.