Case ReportPossible common neurological breakdowns for alexithymia and humour appreciation deficit: A case study

- Damage to the medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulated gyrus may underlie alexithymia and humor appreciation deficits.
- Olfactory frontal groove meningioma may predispose to problems with emotionalizing and humor appreciation processing.
- The inclusion of humor assessment may be a valuable tool for clinicians dealing with patients with olfactory meningiomas.

This brief work is an attempt to point to the possible common neurological breakdowns in giving rise to alexithymia, and impaired appreciation of humour. In particular, we present the case of a patient who lost the ability to enjoy humour after the surgical removal of a frontal groove meningioma, although he was still able to detect it, while at the same time was diagnosed with organic alexithymia. Our results indicate that problems in the affective appreciation of humour and in emotionalizing (alexithymic symptoms) may be the result of damage to the ventral-rostral portions of the ACG/mPFC, which prevent the patient from assessing the salience of emotion and motivational information, and generating emotional reactions; as a result he has trouble experiencing emotions, knowing how he and others feel, and enjoy humour.