Sophie Scott: Why we laugh
Sophie Scott: Miksi nauramme
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
ensimmäistä kertaa,
I would've been about six.
oli noin kuusi vuotta.
doing something unusual,
jotain omituista,
laughing at, but I wanted in.
mutta halusin mukaan.
going, "Hoo hoo!" (Laughter)
nauroin "Hehe!" (Naurua)
what they were laughing at
signs in toilets on trains
and could not do
ja ei saa tehdä
about the English is, of course,
muistaa sellainen asia,
sophisticated sense of humor.
älykäs huumorintaju.
understand anything of that.
I've come to care about it again.
olen alkanut välittää siitä taas.
is just play some examples
people make and how odd that can be,
pitämää ääntä ja sen omituisuutta,
laughter is as a sound.
nauru on äänenä.
than it is like speech.
eläinten äännähdyksiä kuin puhetta.
The first one is pretty joyful.
Ensimmäinen on lystikäs.
where I'm just, like,
like he's breathing out.
vain ulospäin.
(Laughter)
(Naurua)
this is a human female laughing.
odd places in terms of making noises.
pitämään melko outoja ääniä.
what is that?" in French.
"Luoja, mikä tuo on?"
I have no idea.
Minulla ei ole aavistustakaan.
you have to look at a part of the body
pitää tarkastella kehonosaa,
don't normally spend much time looking at,
eivät yleensä tarkastele paljon,
your ribcage all the time.
nytkin hengittämiseen.
at the moment with your ribcage,
kylkiluiden välisiä lihaksia,
the muscles between your ribs,
and contracting your ribcage,
rintanne ympärille hihnan
around the outside of your chest
sen liikettä,
at that movement,
eli hengityksen.
movement, so that's breathing.
completely differently.
something much more like this.
enemmän tätä.
kylkiluiden liikkeitä
movements of the ribcage
that can do this.
has a mortal enemy,
on arkkivihollinen,
start to contract very regularly,
hyvin säännönmukaisesti,
sort of zig-zagging,
the air out of you.
of making a sound.
tapa äännehtiä.
it's having the same effect.
vaikutus on sama.
Ha! -- gives you a sound.
päästää äänen.
you can get these spasms,
niistä tulee kouristuksia,
these -- (Wheezing) -- things happening.
asioita tapahtuu.
there isn't very much,
sitä ei ole paljoakaan,
everything we think we know
kaikki, mitä tiedämme
to hear people to say
kuulla ihmisten sanovan,
are the only animals that laugh.
ainoastaan ihminen nauraa.
throughout the mammals.
and well-observed in primates,
with things like tickling.
and all mammals play.
kaikki nisäkkäät leikkivät.
it's associated with interactions.
se liittyy vuorovaikutukseen.
a lot of work on this,
on alan uranuurtaja,
more likely to laugh
jopa 30 kertaa todennäköisemmin
than if you're on your own,
like conversation.
kuten keskusteluissa.
"When do you laugh?"
"Milloin naurat?"
about humor and they'll talk about jokes.
huumorista ja vitseistä.
they're laughing with their friends.
he nauravat ystäviensä kanssa.
hardly ever actually laughing at jokes.
emme lähestulkoon ikinä naura vitseille.
that you understand them,
että ymmärrämme heitä,
part of the same group as them.
että kuulumme samaan ryhmään.
that you like them.
as talking to them,
of that emotional work for you.
tunteellisen työn puolestamme.
has pointed out, as you can see here,
ja minäkin nauroin vanhempieni naurulle
funny laughs at the start,
when I found my parents laughing,
behaviorally contagious effect.
tuntee sen ihmisen.
off somebody else if you know them.
by this social context.
meaning of laughter
is different kinds of laughter,
naurun eri muodoista,
about how human beings vocalize
neurobiologisia havaintoja,
two kinds of laughs that we have.
on kahdenlaista naurua.
for helpless, involuntary laughter,
sellaisessa tahattomassa naurussa,
screaming about a silly song,
nauroivat huutaessaan höpölaululle,
than some of that more polite
kuin osa kohteliaasta,
which isn't horrible laughter,
mikä ei ole suurta hekotusta,
as part of their communicative act to you,
jonka joku tekee
they are choosing to do this.
he tekevät sen tietoisesti.
two different ways of vocalizing.
on kehittynyt kaksi tapaa äännellä.
are part of an older system
vanhempaa järjestelmää
like the speech I'm doing now.
kuten puhe, jota tuotan nyt.
might actually have two different roots.
on kaksi eri perustaa.
in more detail.
recordings of people laughing,
ihmisten naurua
to make people laugh,
ihmiset nauramaan,
to produce more posed, social laughter.
nauramaan tekonaurua.
you like your friend,
the joke's all that.
a couple of those.
this laughter is real laughter,
mielestänne oikeaa naurua
or more voluntary laughter?
Sophie Scott: Posed? Posed.
Sophie Scott: Selvä..
all they had to do was record me
heidän piti vain nauhoittaa minut
something I knew she wanted to laugh at,
jotain, jonka arvelin naurattavan häntä,
are good at telling the difference
ovat hyviä erottamaan
quite similar with chimpanzees.
on simpansseissa.
eri tavalla kutitettuina
if they're being tickled
something like that here,
eroaa sosiaalisesta naurusta.
being different from social laughter.
Sävel on korkeampi.
They're higher in pitch.
from your lungs
kuin voisi tahdonalaisesti.
than you could ever produce voluntarily.
laulaa noin korkealla sävelellä.
pitch my voice that high to sing.
supistuksia ja pihinä-ääniä,
contractions and weird whistling sounds,
nauru on helppoa
is extremely easy,
we might think it sounds a bit fake.
an important social cue.
tärkeä sosiaalinen vihje.
to laugh in a lot of situations,
monesti tieten tahtoen,
nasality in posed laughter,
if you were laughing involuntarily.
voi tehdä, kun nauraa tahattomasti.
these two different sorts of things.
olevan kaksi eri asiaa.
to see how brains respond
katsoaksemme aivojen reaktiota
this is a really boring experiment.
real and posed laughs.
molempia.
it was a study on laughter.
to distract them,
is lying listening to sounds.
and when you hear posed laughter,
oikeaa naurua ja tekonaurua
completely differently,
which lies in auditory cortex,
kuuloaivokuorella,
more to the real laughs,
reagoivat aivoalueet,
laughing involuntarily,
hear in any other context.
kuule muissa konteksteissa.
with greater auditory processing
suurempaa äänten prosessointia,
laughing in a posed way,
associated with mentalizing,
mentalisaatioon,
somebody else is thinking.
which is completely boring
mikä on puuduttavaa
"A ha ha ha ha ha,"
"A ha ha ha ha ha",
why they're laughing.
to understand it in context,
at that point in time,
anything to do with you,
why those people are laughing.
miksi ne oikein nauravat.
at how people hear real and posed laughter
kuinka ihmiset kuulevat eri naurut
the Royal Societyn kanssa,
we ran with the Royal Society,
two questions.
oikeaa tai väkinäistä se oli.
or posed do these laughs sound?
ja tekonaurut sinisellä.
and the posed laughs are shown in blue.
oikean naurun aina vain paremmin.
and better at spotting real laughter.
they can't really hear the difference.
peak performance in this dataset
tämän datan mukaan huippua saavuteta
late 30s and early 40s.
by the time you hit puberty.
kuin vasta teini-iässä.
by the time your brain has matured
aivot ovat täysin kehittyneet
throughout your entire early adult life.
not, what does the laughter sound like
kysy, vaikuttaako nauru olevan
or posed, but we say,
make you want to laugh,
profiili muuttuu.
we see a different profile.
when you hear laughter.
vaikken tajunnut, mitä tapahtui.
when I had no idea what was going on.
than the posed laughs,
helpommin kuin tekonaurun,
less contagious to you.
tarttuu heikemmin.
really grumpy as we get older,
todella happamia vanhetessamme,
understand laughter better,
hearing people laugh to want to laugh.
jotta haluttaisi nauraa.
lay assumptions are incorrect,
ovat olleet vääriä,
there's even more to laughter
nauruun liittyy enemmänkin
we should look at,
jota tarkastella,
people are phenomenally nuanced
että ihmiset ovat tosi erilaisia
set of studies coming out
todella mukavia tutkimuksia
a longitudinal study with couples.
parien pitkittäistutkimuksia.
men and women, into the lab,
tulevat labraan,
stressful conversations to have
stressaavia keskusteluita,
so he can see them becoming stressed.
stressiä mittaavaan polygrafiin.
and he'll say to the husband,
ja hän sanoo miehelle:
that irritates you."
jota vaimosi tekee."
briefly, you and your partner --
sinä ja kumppanisi --
more stressed as soon as that starts.
ovat heti vähän stressaantuneempia.
people become more stressed.
näkyy fysiologisesti.
who manage that feeling of stress
parit, jotka lievittävät stressiä
positive emotions like laughter,
kuten naurulla,
physically feeling better,
unpleasant situation better together,
epämiellyttävää tilannetta paremmin,
in their relationship
at close relationships,
their emotions together.
tunteitaan yhdessä.
to show that we like each other,
viesti pitävämme toisistamme,
feel better together.
yhteisen olomme mukavaksi.
to be limited to romantic relationships.
romanttisiin suhteisiin.
going to be a characteristic
such as you might have with friends,
kuten ystävyyssuhteisiin,
young men in the former East Germany
entisessä Itä-Saksassa
their heavy metal band,
heavy metal -bändilleen,
and the mood is very serious,
ja tunnelmaltaan vakava,
what happens in terms of laughter
mitä tapahtuu naurun suhteen,
and how that changes the mood.
kuinka nopeasti tunnelma muuttuu.
He's got swimming trunks on,
Hänellä on uimapöksyt
They are already laughing, hard.
He nauravat katketakseen.
is it's all very serious
kaikki on haudanvakavaa
as soon as he doesn't go through the ice,
ja heti kun jää ei rikkoudukaan,
and bone everywhere,
ole verta ja luita,
with him standing there going,
ja hän olisi seissyt siinä sanoen:
I think this is broken,"
taisin murtaa tämän,"
That would be stressful.
murtuneella jalalla,
with a visibly broken leg laughing,
nyt sairaalaan."
think we need to go to the hospital now,"
ja hankalasta tilanteesta
embarrassing, difficult situation,
tähän josta pidämme,
actually enjoying there,
a really interesting use,
jotain tällaista tapahtuneen
something like this happening
on the ice in our underpants.
a relative who was being a bit difficult,
yksi sukulaiseni oli hankala,
just before the whole thing started
yllättäneeni itseni
that happened in a 1970s sitcom,
tapahtui 70-luvun tilannekomediassa,
I don't know why I'm doing this,
miksi teen niin,
something from somewhere
together with me.
to find some reason we can do this.
että selviämme kyllä.
We're going to get through this.
Selviämme kyllä.
are doing this all the time.
teemme näin koko ajan.
you don't even notice it.
ettemme huomaa sitä.
how often they laugh,
when you laugh with people,
a really ancient evolutionary system
evoluution kehittämään systeemiin,
to make and maintain social bonds,
sosiaalisten siteiden tekoon ja ylläpitoon
to make ourselves feel better.
siihen, että kohotamme mieltämme.
it's a really ancient behavior
se on vanha käyttäytymismalli,
and makes us feel better.
ja kohottaa mieltämme.
but mammals. (Laughter)
olemme vain nisäkkäitä. (Naurua)
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