Cognitive Resources and the Engagement of the Precuneus During Irony Processing

Irony is often considered one of the most complex forms of verbal communication and can serve as an important indicator of communication abilities. An ironic statement conveys a meaning that is the opposite of its literal interpretation. The cognitive processes presumed to be involved in interpreting irony include Theory of Mind (ToM), executive functions, and processing style. At the neural level, processing irony has been associated with activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG), precuneus, and inferior parietal lobule, among others. The objective of this study was to examine the cognitive processes and the neural correlates of processing irony in Mexican adults using a novel task designed for Spanish-speaking individuals. A total of 45 participants completed a cognitive assessment and performed a contextual discrepancy task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. With the lowest classification accuracy and the slowest response times, the results showed processing irony to be challenging. As expected, processing irony engaged brain regions primarily associated with ToM (e.g., precuneus) and language processing (e.g., IFG and pSTG). In contrast, the identification of literal and unrelated statements activated motor-related areas. Interestingly, no differential activation was found for the processing of white lies. Furthermore, regression models indicated that processing statements within a given context-whether ironic, unrelated, white lies, or literal-engaged cognitive domains related to executive functions, perceptual processing, and social cognition.