Dan Hurley writes on the Science of Sarcasm,  and  the findings of Katherine P. Rankins studies, in this interesting New York Times article
What you may not have realized is that perceiving sarcasm, the smirking put-down that buries its barb by stating the opposite, requires a nifty mental trick that lies at the heart of social relations: figuring out what others are thinking. Those who lose the ability, whether through a head injury or the frontotemporal dementias afflicting the patients in Dr. Rankin’s study, just do not get it when someone says during a hurricane, “Nice weather we’re having.”
Source: New York Times, By Dan Hurley Published: June 3, 2008
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