Sophie Scott: Why we laugh
Sophie Scott: Hvorfor vi griner
While exploring the neuroscience of speech and vocal behavior, Sophie Scott stumbled upon a surprising second vocation: making audiences laugh as a stand-up comic. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
to you today about laughter,
by thinking about the first time
den første gang
I would've been about six.
omkring seks år gammel.
doing something unusual,
noget usædvanligt,
laughing at, but I wanted in.
men jeg ville også være med.
going, "Hoo hoo!" (Laughter)
sagde "Huu huu!" (Latter)
what they were laughing at
signs in toilets on trains
and could not do
about the English is, of course,
englændere, er selvfølgelig,
sans for humor.
sophisticated sense of humor.
understand anything of that.
noget af alt det.
I've come to care about it again.
interessere mig for den igen.
is just play some examples
people make and how odd that can be,
og hvor sær den kan være,
laughter is as a sound.
latter egentlig er.
than it is like speech.
den ligner tale.
The first one is pretty joyful.
Den første er ret munter.
trænger til at trække vejret.
where I'm just, like,
like he's breathing out.
kun ånder ud.
(Latter)
(Laughter)
this is a human female laughing.
det her en kvinde, der ler.
odd places in terms of making noises.
steder, når det kommer til at lave lyde.
what is that?" in French.
hvad er det?" på fransk.
I have no idea.
Jeg aner det ikke.
you have to look at a part of the body
må vi se på en del af kroppen
don't normally spend much time looking at,
normalt ikke bruger så megen tid på,
hele tiden.
your ribcage all the time.
jeres brystkasse,
at the moment with your ribcage,
musklerne mellem ribbenene,
the muscles between your ribs,
sammentrække brystkassen,
and contracting your ribcage,
jeres bryst,
around the outside of your chest
på den bevægelse,
at that movement,
sinus, som er åndedrættet.
movement, so that's breathing.
anderledes.
completely differently.
noget meget mere som dette.
something much more like this.
movements of the ribcage
med brystkassen
that can do this.
er i stand til det.
en ærkefjende,
has a mortal enemy,
sig meget jævnligt sammen,
start to contract very regularly,
sort of zig-zagging,
zig-zag mønster,
the air out of you.
of making a sound.
it's having the same effect.
får man den samme effekt.
-- laver en lyd.
Ha! -- gives you a sound.
får man disse spasmer,
you can get these spasms,
these -- (Wheezing) -- things happening.
there isn't very much,
meget om latter,
everything we think we know
som vi tror vi ved
to hear people to say
at høre folk sige
eneste dyr, der ler.
are the only animals that laugh.
hos alle pattedyr.
throughout the mammals.
hos primater,
and well-observed in primates,
with things like tickling.
and all mammals play.
og alle pattedyr leger.
it's associated with interactions.
er den forbundet med interaktioner.
a lot of work on this,
meget med dette,
more likely to laugh
tilbøjelig til at le
than if you're on your own,
end hvis du er alene,
like conversation.
"When do you laugh?"
"Hvornår ler du?"
about humor and they'll talk about jokes.
vittigheder.
they're laughing with their friends.
ler de sammen med deres venner.
hardly ever actually laughing at jokes.
næsten aldrig ad vittigheder.
that you understand them,
at vi forstår dem,
part of the same group as them.
samme gruppe som dem.
that you like them.
taler med dem,
as talking to them,
mæssige arbejde for os.
of that emotional work for you.
påvist, som det ses her,
has pointed out, as you can see here,
funny laughs at the start,
mine forældre le,
when I found my parents laughing,
på vores opførsel.
behaviorally contagious effect.
latter hvis du kender den anden.
off somebody else if you know them.
kontekster.
by this social context.
med latter
meaning of laughter
forskellige slags latter,
is different kinds of laughter,
hvordan mennesker vokaliserer
about how human beings vocalize
two kinds of laughs that we have.
slags latter.
for helpless, involuntary laughter,
hjælpeløs ufrivillig latter,
screaming about a silly song,
latter over en fjollet sang,
than some of that more polite
end den mere høflige
which isn't horrible laughter,
er en forfærdelig latter,
as part of their communicative act to you,
som en del af kommunikativ relation,
they are choosing to do this.
de vælger at gøre det.
forskellige måder at vokalisere.
two different ways of vocalizing.
et ældre system
are part of an older system
like the speech I'm doing now.
talen jeg frembringer nu.
har to forskellige baggrunde.
might actually have two different roots.
in more detail.
optagelser af folk der ler,
recordings of people laughing,
at få dem til at le,
to make people laugh,
to produce more posed, social laughter.
mere opstillet, social latter.
you like your friend,
the joke's all that.
a couple of those.
this laughter is real laughter,
frivillig latter?
or more voluntary laughter?
Sophie Scott: Posed? Posed.
Sophie Scott: Falsk? Falsk.
mens jeg kiggede på en optagelse
all they had to do was record me
something I knew she wanted to laugh at,
jeg vidste hun ville le ad,
are good at telling the difference
hos chimpanser.
quite similar with chimpanzees.
hvis de bliver kildet
if they're being tickled
som anderledes end social latter.
something like that here,
being different from social laughter.
De er højere i tonefald.
They're higher in pitch.
from your lungs
kunne rent viljemæssigt.
than you could ever produce voluntarily.
derop for at synge.
pitch my voice that high to sing.
og mærkelige fløjtelyde,
contractions and weird whistling sounds,
er meget nem at frembringe,
is extremely easy,
we might think it sounds a bit fake.
falsk i vore ører.
an important social cue.
vigtig social funktion.
i mange situationer,
to laugh in a lot of situations,
nasality in posed laughter,
i opstillet latter
if you were laughing involuntarily.
hvis du lo ufrivilligt.
these two different sorts of things.
forskellige ting.
to see how brains respond
hvordan hjernen reagerer
kedeligt eksperiment.
this is a really boring experiment.
real and posed laughs.
it was a study on laughter.
undersøgte latter.
to distract them,
distrahere dem,
is lying listening to sounds.
lytte til lyde.
and when you hear posed laughter,
og når du hører opstillet latter,
completely differently,
which lies in auditory cortex,
som ligger i auditive cortex,
more to the real laughs,
mere på ægte latter,
laughing involuntarily,
hear in any other context.
i andre sammenhænge.
with greater auditory processing
større auditiv processering
laughing in a posed way,
le på en opstillet måde,
associated with mentalizing,
forbundet med mentalisering,
somebody else is thinking.
which is completely boring
hvilket er ret kedeligt
"A ha ha ha ha ha,"
"A ha ha ha ha ha,"
why they're laughing.
hvorfor de ler.
to understand it in context,
at that point in time,
anything to do with you,
why those people are laughing.
hvordan folk skelner mellem latter
at how people hear real and posed laughter
foretog med Royal Society,
we ran with the Royal Society,
two questions.
opstillet det lød.
or posed do these laughs sound?
opstillede i blåt.
and the posed laughs are shown in blue.
til at kende ægte latter.
and better at spotting real laughter.
ikke kende forskel.
they can't really hear the difference.
vi bedre til det,
peak performance in this dataset
først i 40´erne.
late 30s and early 40s.
by the time you hit puberty.
vi kommer i puberteten.
by the time your brain has matured
vor hjerne er udviklet
tidlige voksenliv.
throughout your entire early adult life.
ikke hvad latter lyder som,
not, what does the laughter sound like
or posed, but we say,
dig lyst til at le,
make you want to laugh,
ser vi noget andet.
we see a different profile.
when you hear laughter.
når du hører latter.
when I had no idea what was going on.
når jeg ikke forstod det der skete.
than the posed laughs,
end opstillet latter,
smittende for os.
less contagious to you.
really grumpy as we get older,
understand laughter better,
hearing people laugh to want to laugh.
latter for at le med.
lay assumptions are incorrect,
er ukorrekte,
there's even more to laughter
we should look at,
vi skal bemærke,
people are phenomenally nuanced
er fænomenalt nuancerede
set of studies coming out
kommer snart ud
a longitudinal study with couples.
undersøgelser med par.
men and women, into the lab,
stressful conversations to have
at have fra ham,
so he can see them becoming stressed.
maskine, så han kan se dem stresse.
and he'll say to the husband,
til manden
that irritates you."
der irriterer dig."
briefly, you and your partner --
dig og din partner --
more stressed as soon as that starts.
mere stressede med det samme.
people become more stressed.
who manage that feeling of stress
tackler stressfølelsen
positive emotions like laughter,
følelser som latter,
physically feeling better,
rent fysisk,
unpleasant situation better together,
situation bedre sammen,
in their relationship
i deres forhold
at close relationships,
their emotions together.
deres følelser sammen.
to show that we like each other,
for at vise at vi kan lide dem,
feel better together.
det bedre sammen.
to be limited to romantic relationships.
romantiske forhold.
going to be a characteristic
such as you might have with friends,
som du også kan have med venner,
unge mænd fra fhv. Øst-Tyskland
young men in the former East Germany
their heavy metal band,
deres heavy metal-gruppe,
and the mood is very serious,
tonen er meget seriøs,
what happens in terms of laughter
i forhold til latter
and how that changes the mood.
og hvordan tonen forandres.
He's got swimming trunks on,
Han er i svømmeshorts,
They are already laughing, hard.
De griner allerede meget.
is it's all very serious
videoen er så seriøs
as soon as he doesn't go through the ice,
han ikke falder gennem isen,
and bone everywhere,
knogler allevegne,
with him standing there going,
var at han stod der og sagde
I think this is broken,"
den er i stykker,"
Det ville stresse os.
That would be stressful.
et synligt brækket ben og lo,
with a visibly broken leg laughing,
skal du på hospitalet,"
think we need to go to the hospital now,"
og svær situation,
kan le med i,
embarrassing, difficult situation,
actually enjoying there,
interessant funktion,
a really interesting use,
lignende ske
something like this happening
i vore underbukser.
on the ice in our underpants.
a relative who was being a bit difficult,
et familiemedlem var besværligt,
lige før det hele begyndte,
just before the whole thing started
skete i en komedie fra 1970´erne,
that happened in a 1970s sitcom,
hvorfor jeg gør dette,
I don't know why I'm doing this,
something from somewhere
et eller andet sted fra
together with me.
sammen med mig.
to find some reason we can do this.
for at finde en grund til at le.
We're going to get through this.
Vi kommer igennem dette.
are doing this all the time.
you don't even notice it.
at du ikke ænser det.
how often they laugh,
when you laugh with people,
a really ancient evolutionary system
evolutionært system
to make and maintain social bonds,
og vedligeholde sociale bånd
to make ourselves feel better.
selv til at få det bedre.
it's a really ancient behavior
det er en ældgammel opførsel
and makes us feel better.
og får os til at have det bedre.
but mammals. (Laughter)
end pattedyr. (Latter)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sophie Scott - Neuroscientist, stand-up comicWhile exploring the neuroscience of speech and vocal behavior, Sophie Scott stumbled upon a surprising second vocation: making audiences laugh as a stand-up comic.
Why you should listen
As deputy director of the University College London’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Sophie Scott seeks out the neurological basis of communication, whether it’s speech or vocalized emotion.
As a pioneering researcher in the science of laughter, she’s made some unexpected discoveries -- including that rats are ticklish, and that the one tactic that’s almost guaranteed to get someone to laugh is to show them someone else laughing. But as an occasional stand-up comedian with UCL’s Bright Club, she shows that she’s no slouch at getting laughs herself.
Sophie Scott | Speaker | TED.com