Can you spot the funny face? An EEG study on slapstick humour processing in children

• We investigated the neural correlates of slapstick humour recognition in children. • We identified specific neural correlates associated with slapstick humour processing. • The neural activity was correlated with humour and facial emotion recognition. • Emotional recognition contributes to understanding slapstick humour in early childhood. This study investigated the neural correlates of slapstick humour recognition in 4- to 5-year-old children using electroencephalography (EEG). We asked whether the development of facial expression recognition affects the capacity to identify humour in situations involving misfortune. The children completed two tasks: an Emotion Recognition Task (EmoRec), in which the children had to identify congruent and incongruent emotional expressions, and a Humour Recognition Task (HumRec), in which they were asked to distinguish humorous from non-humorous misfortunate situations. We identified specific neural correlates associated with slapstick humour processing (N170, LP) and neural correlates related to face processing (N170, P300). This suggests that children between the ages of 4 and 5 recognised emotions in faces and identified humorous information in misfortunate situations. In addition, the neural activity was correlated with humour and facial emotion recognition. This supports the hypothesis that emotional recognition contributes to understanding slapstick humour in early childhood.