Sophie Scott: Why we laugh
Sophie Scott: Zašto se smijemo
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
I would've been about six.
imala sam šest godina.
doing something unusual,
usred neobične radnje -
laughing at, but I wanted in.
ali i ja sam im se htjela pridružiti.
going, "Hoo hoo!" (Laughter)
i počela govoriti: "Hu hu!" (Smijeh)
what they were laughing at
signs in toilets on trains
u toaletima na vlakovima
and could not do
a što ne smiješ raditi
about the English is, of course,
kad govorimo o Englezima jest to da
sophisticated sense of humor.
smisao za humor.
understand anything of that.
I've come to care about it again.
opet sam se zainteresirala za njega.
is just play some examples
people make and how odd that can be,
o tome koliko čudan on može biti
laughter is as a sound.
than it is like speech.
nego ljudskom govoru.
The first one is pretty joyful.
Prvi je prilično radostan.
where I'm just, like,
like he's breathing out.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
this is a human female laughing.
odd places in terms of making noises.
na neka krajnje neobična mjesta.
what is that?" in French.
"Oh, Bože, što je to?"
I have no idea.
slažemo s njom. Nemam pojma.
you have to look at a part of the body
moramo promotriti dio tijela
don't normally spend much time looking at,
inače zanemaruju,
your ribcage all the time.
at the moment with your ribcage,
the muscles between your ribs,
mišiće između rebara
and contracting your ribcage,
around the outside of your chest
oko vanjskog dijela vaših prsa,
at that movement,
movement, so that's breathing.
sinusni pokret - disanje.
completely differently.
something much more like this.
movements of the ribcage
gotovo neprimjetno pokreće
that can do this.
has a mortal enemy,
zajedničkog zakletog neprijatelja -
start to contract very regularly,
marljivo stiskati
sort of zig-zagging,
the air out of you.
of making a sound.
it's having the same effect.
dobili biste isti rezultat.
Ha! -- gives you a sound.
you can get these spasms,
možete dobiti napadaje,
these -- (Wheezing) -- things happening.
there isn't very much,
nema puno za reći,
everything we think we know
što mislimo da znamo
to hear people to say
čuti ljude kako govore
are the only animals that laugh.
jedine životinje koje se smiju.
throughout the mammals.
kod mnogih sisavaca.
and well-observed in primates,
opisan i uočen u primata,
with things like tickling.
sa stvarima poput škakljanja.
and all mammals play.
a svi se sisavci igraju.
it's associated with interactions.
povezan je s interakcijom.
a lot of work on this,
to intenzivno proučavao,
more likely to laugh
30 puta skloniji smijati se
than if you're on your own,
sa situacijama kada smo sami.
like conversation.
poput razgovora.
"When do you laugh?"
about humor and they'll talk about jokes.
humoru i vicevima.
they're laughing with their friends.
smiju se među prijateljima,
hardly ever actually laughing at jokes.
rijetko se kad smijemo šalama.
that you understand them,
da ih razumijemo,
part of the same group as them.
da pripadamo istoj skupini,
that you like them.
as talking to them,
of that emotional work for you.
emocionalnog posla.
has pointed out, as you can see here,
funny laughs at the start,
when I found my parents laughing,
vidjevši roditelje
behaviorally contagious effect.
bihevioralne zaraznosti.
off somebody else if you know them.
ukoliko poznajete te ljude.
by this social context.
društvenim kontekstom.
meaning of laughter
is different kinds of laughter,
različite vrste smijeha.
about how human beings vocalize
o tome kako ljudi vokaliziraju
two kinds of laughs that we have.
da imamo dvije vrste smijeha.
for helpless, involuntary laughter,
bespomoćnog, nesvojevoljnog smijeha,
screaming about a silly song,
valjali po podu zbog pjesme,
than some of that more polite
which isn't horrible laughter,
što nije užasan smijeh,
as part of their communicative act to you,
kojim se nastoji komunicirati,
they are choosing to do this.
a oni se odlučuju na to.
two different ways of vocalizing.
dva različita načina vokalizacije.
are part of an older system
dio su starijeg sustava
like the speech I'm doing now.
poput govora koji ja sad provodim.
might actually have two different roots.
da smijeh ima dva različita korijena.
in more detail.
recordings of people laughing,
trebale su nam snimke smijeha
to make people laugh,
potruditi da nasmijemo ljude.
to produce more posed, social laughter.
društvene smjehove.
you like your friend,
the joke's all that.
a couple of those.
this laughter is real laughter,
je li ovo iskreni smijeh
or more voluntary laughter?
Sophie Scott: Posed? Posed.
Sophie Scott: Umjetan? Da.
all they had to do was record me
samo su trebali snimiti mene
something I knew she wanted to laugh at,
na što sam znala da se želi nasmijati
are good at telling the difference
quite similar with chimpanzees.
nailazimo i kod čimpanzi.
if they're being tickled
something like that here,
being different from social laughter.
koji se razlikuje od onog društvenog.
They're higher in pitch.
from your lungs
than you could ever produce voluntarily.
to mogli izvesti voljnim putem.
pitch my voice that high to sing.
toliko povisiti za pjevanje.
contractions and weird whistling sounds,
te kontrakcije i čudne zviždeće zvukove,
is extremely easy,
we might think it sounds a bit fake.
da umjetni smijeh zvuči lažno,
an important social cue.
to laugh in a lot of situations,
se smijemo u mnogim situacijama
nasality in posed laughter,
nailazimo na nazalnost,
if you were laughing involuntarily.
nenamjernim smijanjem.
these two different sorts of things.
to see how brains respond
da vidimo kako mozak reagira
this is a really boring experiment.
real and posed laughs.
prave i umjetne smjehove.
it was a study on laughter.
to distract them,
da ih zbunimo,
is lying listening to sounds.
and when you hear posed laughter,
completely differently,
which lies in auditory cortex,
u kojima se nalazi slušni kortekst
more to the real laughs,
više reagiraju na pravi smijeh,
laughing involuntarily,
nenamjerno smije,
hear in any other context.
samo za taj kontekst.
with greater auditory processing
s pojačanim slušnim procesuiranjem
laughing in a posed way,
kad čujemo umjetni smijeh,
associated with mentalizing,
vezana uz umovanje,
somebody else is thinking.
što netko drugi misli.
which is completely boring
što je užasno dosadno
"A ha ha ha ha ha,"
why they're laughing.
to understand it in context,
unutar konteksta
at that point in time,
anything to do with you,
why those people are laughing.
zašto se drugi ljudi smiju.
at how people hear real and posed laughter
doživljavamo iskreni i umjetni smijeh
we ran with the Royal Society,
koji smo proveli s Royal Societyjem.
two questions.
or posed do these laughs sound?
iskreno, odnosno umjetno zvuče.
and the posed laughs are shown in blue.
crvenom bojom, a umjetni plavom.
and better at spotting real laughter.
u prepoznavanju iskrenog smijeha.
they can't really hear the difference.
ne vide neku preveliku razliku.
peak performance in this dataset
ne dostižemo svoj vrhunac
late 30s and early 40s.
i ranih četrdesetih.
by the time you hit puberty.
u potpunosti prije puberteta.
by the time your brain has matured
dok nam se mozak ne razvije
throughout your entire early adult life.
not, what does the laughter sound like
i ne pitamo kako smijeh zvuči
or posed, but we say,
make you want to laugh,
we see a different profile.
vidimo drukčiji profil.
when you hear laughter.
kada ga čujemo.
when I had no idea what was going on.
bez da sam imala pojma što se događa.
than the posed laughs,
od hinjenog smijeha,
less contagious to you.
sve postaje manje zarazno.
really grumpy as we get older,
mrzovoljni kako starimo
understand laughter better,
hearing people laugh to want to laugh.
da se i mi počnemo smijati.
lay assumptions are incorrect,
naših laičkih pretpostavki pogrešno,
there's even more to laughter
da je smijeh nešto više
we should look at,
koju trebamo promatrati
people are phenomenally nuanced
izvanredno osjetljivi
set of studies coming out
a longitudinal study with couples.
longitudinalnu studiju s parovima.
men and women, into the lab,
dolaze mu u laboratorij,
stressful conversations to have
so he can see them becoming stressed.
da vidi kako se počinju uznemiravati.
and he'll say to the husband,
that irritates you."
što vas živcira kod vaše žene."
briefly, you and your partner --
vas i vašeg partnera -
more stressed as soon as that starts.
u tom trenutku barem malo uznemiri.
people become more stressed.
who manage that feeling of stress
koji osjećaj uznemirenosti pobijede
positive emotions like laughter,
physically feeling better,
da se bolje osjećaju,
unpleasant situation better together,
bolje nose zajednički.
in their relationship
at close relationships,
their emotions together.
to show that we like each other,
drugima da nam se sviđaju
feel better together.
to be limited to romantic relationships.
samo na romantične veze,
going to be a characteristic
such as you might have with friends,
poput onih s prijateljima,
young men in the former East Germany
bivše Istočne Njemačke
their heavy metal band,
promocije svog heavy metal benda.
and the mood is very serious,
raspoloženje iznimno ozbiljno,
what happens in terms of laughter
po pitanju smijeha
and how that changes the mood.
i koliko mijenja cijelo raspoloženje.
He's got swimming trunks on,
na sebi ima kupaće gaće,
They are already laughing, hard.
is it's all very serious
jest ta ozbiljnost koja vlada
as soon as he doesn't go through the ice,
i čim ne propadne kroz njega,
and bone everywhere,
ni krvi ni slomljenih kostiju,
with him standing there going,
I think this is broken,"
mislim da je slomljeno."
That would be stressful.
Bilo bi stresno.
with a visibly broken leg laughing,
vidno slomljene noge,
think we need to go to the hospital now,"
mislim da moramo u bolnicu."
embarrassing, difficult situation,
neugodne i teške situacije
actually enjoying there,
u kojoj svi uživaju.
a really interesting use,
something like this happening
ovako nešto dogodilo
on the ice in our underpants.
a relative who was being a bit difficult,
jedan mi je rođak bio pomalo težak,
just before the whole thing started
that happened in a 1970s sitcom,
što je bilo u seriji iz 70-ih
I don't know why I'm doing this,
imala pojma zašto to radim,
something from somewhere
together with me.
da se smije sa mnom.
to find some reason we can do this.
kako bih našla razlog da mi to možemo.
We're going to get through this.
are doing this all the time.
you don't even notice it.
how often they laugh,
when you laugh with people,
s drugim ljudima, radimo nešto
a really ancient evolutionary system
pradavnom evolucijskom sustavu
to make and maintain social bonds,
stvarali i održavali društvene veze,
to make ourselves feel better.
popravljali raspoloženje.
it's a really ancient behavior
to je drevni oblik ponašanja
and makes us feel better.
i popraviti nam raspoloženje.
but mammals. (Laughter)
(Smijeh)
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