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It is interesting how you associate the function of humor with a healthy mind.
I also think it is one of the higher function of mind, together with curiosity and compassion.
This ties in with the discussion about what a mind is, I cannot imagine any of these functions to be replicated by a machine. These are "mind" functions not just brain functions even though as your patient illustrates, it requires a working brain to manifest these functions.

Notice that humor is usually associated with language but that is an artificial limitation. There is humor in visual or auditory stimuli. Anyone who has observed a toddler sees how they find things funny way before they have acquired any language skills.

P.S. the fact that you find it delightful is also one of those mind functions.

How can a sane person find anything other than humor in our absurd existence ? Once we realize that in the end , the joke is on each of us , the whole game becomes very funny . I would agree that humor requires a degree of self-awareness which has to be a part of a properly functioning mind . People with no sense of humor scare the hell out of me .( Think of all of the funny things that Dick Cheney ever said )

I like Camus's image of Sisyphus laughing as he pushed the boulder up the hill.

Marti, did you intend the implication of your post that the mind and the brain are the same.

I think I am leaning toward the idea that the mind is a convergence of the brain functions. The mind being greater than the sum of its parts kind of thing. The mind is not the brain -- the mind is the activity of the brain. The mind arises from the structure of the brain, from how the raw materials of the brain are arranged.

When you watch what appears to be the brain teaching itself, retraining itself, it certainly produces all kinds of questions in your own mind, such as what exactly is going on in there?

"There is humor in visual or auditory stimuli." ~ Raouf

I would have to agree with that statement Raouf; I have experienced examples of both. I've laughed at wordless cartoons and I remember being amused by the sight of an old lady with a walker staring down at the ground where a long sidewalk strangely came to a dead end (shame on me). Playing guitar with a partner and improvising in ways that worked musically but were unexpected in the improvisation of the performance would lead all the musicians to break out in laughter. Arguably, music is a language as is body language, but I think those are good examples of humor being more than just a verbal experience.

"a convergence of the brain functions"....well put Marti; maybe a sudden awareness of irony triggers our psychological/biological response in the form of an obvious indicator of our ability as deep thinkers which would theoretically be naturally selected and then passed on.

I think that humor is the product of endorphins. For someone to engage in humor their must be a certain level of a certain type of endorphin. Studies show that endorphins are produced by social interaction but they can also be produced by autistic people without social interaction.

So I must ask the question which comes first the endorphins or the humor because humor produces endorphins too?

I think that there is a domino effect once the humor starts but what causes the initial release of enough endorphin to make someone want to interact using humor?

What about the more intellectual type of humor : how long will it take before your patient will be able to engage meaningfully in that?

Oh, hell, Ziking, I have no idea. He still is having trouble turning on the hot water in the shower. Can't remember from one day to the next which is hot -- the left or right knob. I am waiting for enough endorphins for him to get that straight. LOL

To what extent is memory related to mind?
Do you feel that he will not be "himself" until he gains his full memory?
Is he distressed about not having the memory everyday things.

There are many among us who have a hard time remembering things others take for granted, no head trauma involved, due to ADHD, Alzheimers, or other factors. Living with someone like this is a learning experience, we find out a lot about ourselves and our expectations ...

once you brain is messed with you are not yourself. (Ii know that sounds absolute.) you will be different in some way. and that makes others around you different.