The popular American sitcom FRIENDS ended years ago, but people still remember Chandler Bing's sarcastic comments. Based on one study, people who take sarcasm seriously, or those who do not get it at all, may exhibit early onset of Alzheimer's disease.
Sarcasm is the choice of humor in the current era. In addition to Bing's sarcastic character, popular shows like "South Park" and 'Rick and Morty" also use sarcasm to convey the story to viewers. While it may be impossible to get every sarcastic quip in a series or a movie, constantly failing to recognize whether a comment is sarcastic is a major red flag.
Red Flags
People who do not realize that they have just been insulted through sarcasm may be suffering from brain atrophy. Sarcasm is considered to be one way to sharpen a person's wit since it fosters creative thinking.
Compared to an outright insult, sarcasm required the recipient to decode the actual meaning of the statement. Back in 2015, Harvard Business School and Columbia Business School uncovered the psychological and the organizational benefits of using sarcasm. When a person cannot delve into a statement's deeper meaning, Huffington Post suggests that there could be a bigger problem -Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's Disease
Little is known about Alzheimer's Disease although this mental condition has been discovered for a long time. A new study at the University of California/San Francisco found that individuals with Alzheimer's disease as well as those who suffered from Frontotemporal Disease cannot tell whether someone is being sarcastic or not.
The study which was published in the Science Translational Medicine highlighted that the patients were not getting the clues pointing out to sarcasm in face-to-face encounters. Sarcasm is processed in the brain's posterior hippocampus and this same part is affected in patients with Alzheimer's. Hence, those who cannot get sarcasm when it hits them in the face may be candidates for Alzheimer's disease.
