Recently Sanz-Arigita et al published an article in the Journal of Sleep that sought to assess the brain activity of those suffering from insomnia. The response to negative stimuli is well studies in Insomnia, however in this study that assessed the response to humor, a positive stimuli.
They found that the presentations of humorous films leads to increased brain activity in the neural reward network for insomnia patients compared with controls, which is thought to be related to the hyperactivity found in insomnia. This may benefit future insomnia treatment.
Citation:
Ernesto Sanz-Arigita, Yannick Daviaux, Marc Joliot, Bixente Dilharreguy, Jean-Arthur Micoulaud-Franchi, Stéphanie Bioulac, Jacques Taillard, Pierre Philip, Ellemarije Altena, Brain reactivity to humorous films is affected by insomnia, Sleep, 2021;, zsab081, https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsab081
