Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26900737›Full record

ReviewThe Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences2016

Pathological Joking or Witzelsucht Revisited.

Elias D Granadillo, Mario F Mendez

Abstract readCase ReportsReview
In one paragraph

Review in The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Case Study 8: A 70-Year-Old Man With Memory Loss, Wandering, and Inappropriate Behaviors.The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2025
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Having a Sense of Humor as a Virtue.The Journal of value inquiry · 2024
    Article
  4. Article
  5. A Clinical Guide to Frontotemporal Dementias.Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) · 2016
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Elias D GranadilloFrom the Depts. of Neurology (EG, MFM) and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (MFM), David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles; and the Neurology Service (MFM), Neurobehavior Unit (EG), VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA.
Mario F MendezFrom the Depts. of Neurology (EG, MFM) and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (MFM), David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles; and the Neurology Service (MFM), Neurobehavior Unit (EG), VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA.

Funding

Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease Phenotypes: Neuropsychology and Neural NetworksRF1AG050967 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI MENDEZ, MARIO F. · 2016 to 2016
$1.9M
Multidisciplinary Study of Social Behavior and Emotion in Frontotemporal DementiaR01AG034499 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI MENDEZ, MARIO F. · 2009 to 2013
$1.9M
NIA NIH HHS R01 AG034499NIA NIH HHS RF1 AG050967
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Humor, or the perception or elicitation of mirth and funniness, is distinguishable from laughter and can be differentially disturbed by neuropsychiatric disease. The authors describe two patients with constant joking, or Witzelsucht, in the absence of pseudobulbar affect and review the literature on pathological humor. These patients had involvement of frontal structures, impaired appreciation of nonsimple humor, and a compulsion for disinhibited joking. Current neuroscience suggests that impaired humor integration from right lateral frontal injury and disinhibition from orbitofrontal damage results in disinhibited humor, preferentially activating limbic and subcortical reward centers. Additional frontal-subcortical circuit dysfunction may promote pathological joking as a compulsion.

Indexed as

LaughterAgedBehavioral SymptomsCerebral CortexHumansMaleMiddle AgedTomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon

Identifiers

PMID26900737
PMCPMC5798973

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.