# Neural processing of laughter in depression

## TL;DR

People with depression perceive laughter more negatively than healthy individuals, and this is linked to brain activity in the anteromedial prefrontal cortex.

## Contribution

This study identifies a neural mechanism in the AMPFC linking depression severity to a negative bias in interpreting laughter.

## Key findings

- Depression patients rated laughter as more negative than healthy controls in both auditory and visual modalities.
- Depression severity correlated with negative attribution bias and reduced AMPFC activation during auditory laughter perception.
- AMPFC activity was reduced in depression patients and partially mediated the effect of depression on laughter perception.

## Abstract

Laughter can convey social intent ranging from acceptance (friendly inclusive laughter) to rejection (malign taunting laughter). We investigated perception of auditory and visual laughter in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) versus healthy controls (HC). 48 MDD patients and 52 HC rated 60 laughter recordings presented auditorily or visually regarding the expressed social intent during an fMRI experiment at 3T. Depression severity was assessed based on questionnaires. MDD patients rated the perceived social intent of the laughter significantly more negative than HC across both modalities. The individual magnitude of this negativity bias of social intent attribution significantly correlated with both depression severity as well as activation in anteromedial prefrontal cortex (AMPFC) during perception of auditory laughter. MDD patients also exhibited a significantly reduced activation in AMPFC and depression severity partially mediated effects on rating of auditory laughter as evidenced by mediation analysis. Our results demonstrate altered perception of social intent expressed by laughter in MDD. Neuroimaging data point to the AMPFC for mediation of this effect as its activity was correlated with both depression severity and a negative attribution bias during perception of auditory laughter. Furthermore, at group level activity in this area was reduced in MDD patients.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-025-97385-6.