Is the Concept of Incongruity Still a Useful Construct for the Advancement of Humor Research? The perception of incongruity is considered to be a necessary, though not sufficient, component of the humor experience. Incongruity has been investigated in the philosophical tradition for centuries, and it goes back as far as Aristotle's definition of the comic as based on a particular form of απάτη. In modern times, many theoretical models, as well as empirical works, are based on this concept. The question (...) is here raised whether the concept of incongruity has already been examined and exploited to its full potential, and nothing new, of theoretical or experimental usefulness, may be drawn from it. It is proposed to conceptualize incongruity as follows: a stimulus is perceived as incongruous when it diverts from the cognitive model of reference. In this perspective, a number of observations are advanced which point to a heuristic property of incongruity still open to interesting developments, both for theory and for applications. (shrink)

How is the embryonic bipotential gonad regulated to produce either an ovary or a testis? In males, transient early activation of the Y chromosome Sry gene makes both germ cells and soma male. However, in females, available evidence suggests that the process of ovary sex determination may take place independently in the germline and somatic lineages. In addition, in contrast to testis, in ovary somatic cells, female‐to‐male gonadal sex reversal can occur at times throughout ovary development and maturation. We suggest (...) that a single gene pathway, likely hinging on the Foxl2 transcription factor, both initiates and maintains sex differentiation in somatic cells of the mammalian ovary. BioEssays 29: 15–25, 2007. Published 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)