Sophie Scott: Why we laugh
Sophie Scott: Miért nevetünk?
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.
doing something unusual,
laughing at, but I wanted in.
de én is nevetni akartam.
going, "Hoo hoo!" (Laughter)
what they were laughing at
signs in toilets on trains
and could not do
mit szabad és mit nem
about the English is, of course,
hogy nekünk, angoloknak
sophisticated sense of humor.
understand anything of that.
értettem az egészből,
I've come to care about it again.
felfigyeltem rá.
is just play some examples
people make and how odd that can be,
hangot adnak ki.
laughter is as a sound.
than it is like speech.
nem emberi beszédre.
The first one is pretty joyful.
Ez az első igazán vidám.
Szegény alig vesz levegőt.
where I'm just, like,
hogy rá kellene szólnom:
like he's breathing out.
mintha csak kilélegezne.
(Laughter)
(Nevetés)
this is a human female laughing.
odd places in terms of making noises.
hangot csal elő.
what is that?" in French.
"Jó Isten, ez mi a csoda?"
I have no idea.
Gőzöm sincs!
you have to look at a part of the body
egy olyan testrészt kell megvizsgálnunk,
don't normally spend much time looking at,
általában elhanyagolnak.
állandóan használjuk.
your ribcage all the time.
at the moment with your ribcage,
the muscles between your ribs,
and contracting your ribcage,
around the outside of your chest
hogyan mozog,
at that movement,
figyelnénk meg rajta. Ez a légzés.
movement, so that's breathing.
completely differently.
something much more like this.
mozdulataival
movements of the ribcage
that can do this.
van egy halálos ellensége:
has a mortal enemy,
szabályosan összehúzódnak,
start to contract very regularly,
sort of zig-zagging,
the air out of you.
of making a sound.
it's having the same effect.
Ha! -- gives you a sound.
jönnek a görcsök,
you can get these spasms,
these -- (Wheezing) -- things happening.
there isn't very much,
Nincs túl sok belőle.
everything we think we know
to hear people to say
are the only animals that laugh.
throughout the mammals.
and well-observed in primates,
mint a csiklandozás.
with things like tickling.
and all mammals play.
és minden emlős játszik.
it's associated with interactions.
a lot of work on this,
more likely to laugh
harmincszor akkora az esélyünk a nevetésre
than if you're on your own,
like conversation.
pl. a beszélgetésre jellemző.
"When do you laugh?"
min nevetnek,
about humor and they'll talk about jokes.
humort és persze vicceket.
they're laughing with their friends.
kiderül: a barátaikkal.
hardly ever actually laughing at jokes.
sosem viccek váltják ki.
that you understand them,
értjük egymást,
part of the same group as them.
that you like them.
as talking to them,
of that emotional work for you.
itt megfigyelhetik,
has pointed out, as you can see here,
hallottuk az előbb,
funny laughs at the start,
amikor a szüleim,
when I found my parents laughing,
behaviorally contagious effect.
hogy ismerőstől kapjuk el a nevetést.
off somebody else if you know them.
by this social context.
meaning of laughter
is different kinds of laughter,
az emberi hangképzésre,
about how human beings vocalize
two kinds of laughs that we have.
hogy kétféle nevetés létezik.
for helpless, involuntary laughter,
screaming about a silly song,
fogták a nevetéstől a dal miatt —
than some of that more polite
Ez nem a szörnyű, erőltetett valami,
which isn't horrible laughter,
as part of their communicative act to you,
they are choosing to do this.
Akarnak nevetni.
two different ways of vocalizing.
kétféle hangképzés alakult ki.
are part of an older system
egy régebbi rendszer része,
like the speech I'm doing now.
might actually have two different roots.
két különböző eredete van.
in more detail.
hogyan nevetnek az emberek,
recordings of people laughing,
to make people laugh,
hogy megnevettessük őket.
to produce more posed, social laughter.
hogy udvariasan heherésszenek.
you like your friend,
the joke's all that.
a couple of those.
this laughter is real laughter,
hogy a nevetés szívből jön-e
or more voluntary laughter?
Sophie Scott: Posed? Posed.
SS: Az bizony.
all they had to do was record me
something I knew she wanted to laugh at,
amint éppen nevetne egy felvételen,
are good at telling the difference
hasonlóan viselkednek.
quite similar with chimpanzees.
if they're being tickled
mint a társaságbeli.
something like that here,
being different from social laughter.
Magasabb hangú.
They're higher in pitch.
from your lungs
than you could ever produce voluntarily.
mint amelyen nevetek.
pitch my voice that high to sing.
és fura, fütyülő hangokat adunk ki.
contractions and weird whistling sounds,
is extremely easy,
színleltnek, hamisnak hallik.
we might think it sounds a bit fake.
an important social cue.
hanem fontos társasági jelzés.
to laugh in a lot of situations,
hogy most nevetünk egyet.
nasality in posed laughter,
vannak orrhangok is.
if you were laughing involuntarily.
során sosem hallunk.
these two different sorts of things.
a két jelenség.
hogyan reagál az agy
to see how brains respond
this is a really boring experiment.
játszottunk le.
real and posed laughs.
it was a study on laughter.
voltak más hangok is,
to distract them,
a felvételeket.
is lying listening to sounds.
vagy igazi nevetést hallunk,
and when you hear posed laughter,
completely differently,
which lies in auditory cortex,
hallásközpontját jelöltük.
more to the real laughs,
laughing involuntarily,
hear in any other context.
with greater auditory processing
laughing in a posed way,
associated with mentalizing,
somebody else is thinking.
which is completely boring
"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,
mások miért nevetnek.
why those people are laughing.
az erőltetett és igazi nevetésre
at how people hear real and posed laughter
we ran with the Royal Society,
two questions.
or posed do these laughs sound?
az erőltetettet kék jelöli.
and the posed laughs are shown in blue.
szúrjuk ki az igazi nevetést.
and better at spotting real laughter.
they can't really hear the difference.
peak performance in this dataset
a legjobb teljesítményt
late 30s and early 40s.
40-es éveink elején nyújtjuk.
teljesen a különbséget.
by the time you hit puberty.
by the time your brain has matured
küszöbén sajátítjuk el.
throughout your entire early adult life.
not, what does the laughter sound like
or posed, but we say,
make you want to laugh,
teljesen más képet kapunk.
we see a different profile.
when you hear laughter.
when I had no idea what was going on.
min derülnek a szüleim.
than the posed laughs,
mint az erőltetett,
reagálunk bármelyikre.
less contagious to you.
really grumpy as we get older,
ahogy öregszünk,
understand laughter better,
hearing people laugh to want to laugh.
hogy mi is nevessünk.
lay assumptions are incorrect,
there's even more to laughter
we should look at,
érdemes vizsgálni,
people are phenomenally nuanced
hihetetlenül kifinomultan
set of studies coming out
a longitudinal study with couples.
évtizedeken át.
men and women, into the lab,
invitál a laborjába.
párbeszédeket folytassanak.
stressful conversations to have
so he can see them becoming stressed.
hogy lássa, mikor lesznek idegesek.
and he'll say to the husband,
és Stevenson azt kérdi a férjtől:
viselkedésében?"
that irritates you."
briefly, you and your partner --
milyen lehet ez!
kicsit idegesebb lesz.
more stressed as soon as that starts.
people become more stressed.
who manage that feeling of stress
amelyek a stresszt jobban kezelik,
positive emotions like laughter,
bevetésével,
physically feeling better,
unpleasant situation better together,
a kellemetlen helyzetet.
in their relationship
at close relationships,
their emotions together.
közösen az érzelmeinket.
to show that we like each other,
hogy jelezzük: szeretjük egymást,
feel better together.
to be limited to romantic relationships.
kapcsolatokra érvényes.
going to be a characteristic
pl. barátságnak,
such as you might have with friends,
young men in the former East Germany
mutat az egykori NDK-ból.
their heavy metal band,
reklámja akart lenni.
and the mood is very serious,
what happens in terms of laughter
mi nevetés funkciója
and how that changes the mood.
s mennyire megváltozik a hangulat.
fürdőnadrágban van,
He's got swimming trunks on,
They are already laughing, hard.
Majd' beleszakadnak a röhögésbe.
is it's all very serious
hogy mennyire komolyan indul a klip.
as soon as he doesn't go through the ice,
s mikor nem szakad be alatta,
and bone everywhere,
with him standing there going,
ha az mondja,
I think this is broken,"
Nézni is rossz lenne.
That would be stressful.
körbe-körbe,
with a visibly broken leg laughing,
"Menjünk a kórházba,"
think we need to go to the hospital now,"
kínos, nehéz helyzet
embarrassing, difficult situation,
actually enjoying there,
a really interesting use,
something like this happening
on the ice in our underpants.
a relative who was being a bit difficult,
Egy rokonom zűrös ember.
just before the whole thing started
kezdtem fecsegni.
that happened in a 1970s sitcom,
miért pont akkor hozakodtam vele elő,
I don't know why I'm doing this,
something from somewhere
amin együtt nevethetnénk.
together with me.
hogy legyen alkalmunk nevetni.
to find some reason we can do this.
We're going to get through this.
átvészeljük ezt a helyzetet is.
are doing this all the time.
you don't even notice it.
how often they laugh,
when you laugh with people,
együtt nevetünk.
a really ancient evolutionary system
jutunk hozzá ily módon.
to make and maintain social bonds,
és ápolására fejlesztették ki.
to make ourselves feel better.
a közérzet javítása.
it's a really ancient behavior
Ősi viselkedésmód ez,
and makes us feel better.
s hogy jobban érezzük magunkat.
but mammals. (Laughter)
emlősök vagyunk. (Nevetés)
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