Sophie Scott: Why we laugh
Sophie Scott: Perché ridiamo
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,
vi parlerò della risata,
by thinking about the first time
della prima volta
I would've been about six.
circa sei anni.
doing something unusual,
stavano facendo qualcosa di insolito,
laughing at, but I wanted in.
ma ero incuriosita.
going, "Hoo hoo!" (Laughter)
"Hoo Hoo". (Risate)
what they were laughing at
il motivo della nostra risata
signs in toilets on trains
nei bagni dei treni
and could not do
e non potevi fare
about the English is, of course,
sugli Inglesi, ovviamente,
sophisticated sense of humor.
molto sofisticato.
understand anything of that.
non capivo niente di tutto ciò.
I've come to care about it again.
son tornata a interessarmene.
is just play some examples
people make and how odd that can be,
che producono, a quanto può essere strano,
laughter is as a sound.
questo suono.
than it is like speech.
che il linguaggio.
The first one is pretty joyful.
La prima è abbastanza gioiosa.
bisogno di respirare.
where I'm just, like,
like he's breathing out.
stia solo espirando.
è davvero lui
(Laughter)
(Risate)
this is a human female laughing.
la risata di una donna.
odd places in terms of making noises.
rumori davvero strani.
what is that?" in French.
in francese.
I have no idea.
Io non ne ho idea.
you have to look at a part of the body
dovete osservare una parte del corpo
don't normally spend much time looking at,
normalmente non si soffermano,
your ribcage all the time.
la cassa toracica.
at the moment with your ribcage,
con la vostra cassa toracica,
the muscles between your ribs,
ossia quelli tra le vostre costole,
and contracting your ribcage,
la cassa toracica.
around the outside of your chest
attorno al vostro petto
at that movement,
guardandone il movimento
movement, so that's breathing.
È la respirazione.
completely differently.
in modo differente.
something much more like this.
è più simile a questo.
movements of the ribcage
produce piccoli movimenti
that can do this.
in grado di farlo.
has a mortal enemy,
sono ostacolati
start to contract very regularly,
a contrarsi regolarmente,
sort of zig-zagging,
di zig-zag molto marcato
the air out of you.
che viene spremuta fuori.
of making a sound.
con cui si può fare un suono.
it's having the same effect.
saltando su qualcuno.
Ha! -- gives you a sound.
produce un suono.
you can get these spasms,
si ottengono degli spasmi,
these -- (Wheezing) -- things happening.
a fare suoni simili.
(Risate)
there isn't very much,
poco della risata,
everything we think we know
che crediamo di sapere
to hear people to say
sentire qualcuno dire
gli unici animali a ridere.
are the only animals that laugh.
anche Nietzsche.
throughout the mammals.
sono capaci di ridere.
and well-observed in primates,
e osservata nei primati,
with things like tickling.
quali il solletico.
and all mammals play.
e tutti i mammiferi giocano.
it's associated with interactions.
all'interazione.
a lot of work on this,
per molto tempo,
more likely to laugh
30 volte di più
than if you're on your own,
piuttosto che da soli,
like conversation.
come in una conversazione.
"When do you laugh?"
quando ridono
about humor and they'll talk about jokes.
e parleranno di umorismo e barzellette.
they're laughing with their friends.
che ridono con i loro amici.
hardly ever actually laughing at jokes.
raramente ridiamo per le barzellette.
that you understand them,
che le capiamo,
part of the same group as them.
che facciamo parte dello stesso gruppo.
that you like them.
che ci piacciono.
as talking to them,
of that emotional work for you.
molte emozioni.
has pointed out, as you can see here,
come si può vedere qui,
funny laughs at the start,
when I found my parents laughing,
i miei genitori ridere,
behaviorally contagious effect.
ha un effetto contagioso.
da un altro
off somebody else if you know them.
da qualcuno che si conosce.
by this social context.
dal contesto sociale.
meaning of laughter
della risata
is different kinds of laughter,
a diversi tipi di risata,
about how human beings vocalize
sulla vocalizzazione umana
two kinds of laughs that we have.
due tipi di risate.
for helpless, involuntary laughter,
della risata spontanea, involontaria,
screaming about a silly song,
che urlavano dalle risate sul pavimento,
than some of that more polite
a quelli della più contenuta
which isn't horrible laughter,
as part of their communicative act to you,
con voi,
they are choosing to do this.
scelgono di farlo.
two different ways of vocalizing.
abbiamo evoluto due modi di vocalizzare.
are part of an older system
sono più antiche
like the speech I'm doing now.
come lo sono le mie nel parlarvi.
might actually have two different roots.
due diversi tipi di origine.
in more detail.
recordings of people laughing,
le persone mentre ridono:
to make people laugh,
il necessario per farle ridere,
to produce more posed, social laughter.
di ridere in modo più posato.
you like your friend,
e voi ridete perché vi è simpatico,
the joke's all that.
a couple of those.
this laughter is real laughter,
se questa risata è spontanea
or more voluntary laughter?
Sophie Scott: Posed? Posed.
Sophie Scott: Fittizia.
(Applausi)
all they had to do was record me
hanno solo dovuto registrarmi
something I knew she wanted to laugh at,
che rideva per una cosa,
are good at telling the difference
capiscono la differenza
quite similar with chimpanzees.
simile per gli scimpanzé.
if they're being tickled
gli scimpanzé ridono
rispetto a quando giocano.
something like that here,
being different from social laughter.
diversa dalla risata sociale.
They're higher in pitch.
di tono più alto.
from your lungs
than you could ever produce voluntarily.
di quella che create volontariamente.
pitch my voice that high to sing.
toni così alti cantando.
contractions and weird whistling sounds,
e suoni simili a fischi,
is extremely easy,
we might think it sounds a bit fake.
ci suona un po' falsa.
an important social cue.
è importante in termini sociali.
to laugh in a lot of situations,
nasality in posed laughter,
produce suono dal naso,
if you were laughing involuntarily.
se rideste spontaneamente.
these two different sorts of things.
to see how brains respond
un cervello reagisce
this is a really boring experiment.
veramente noioso.
real and posed laughs.
entrambe le risate.
it was a study on laughter.
stessimo studiando.
to distract them,
per distrarli,
is lying listening to sounds.
è stato ascoltare.
and when you hear posed laughter,
e impostate
completely differently,
in modo completamente
which lies in auditory cortex,
nella corteccia uditiva,
more to the real laughs,
che reagiscono alle vere risate,
laughing involuntarily,
ridere spontaneamente
hear in any other context.
inesistenti in altri contesti.
with greater auditory processing
a sofisticate elaborazioni auditive
laughing in a posed way,
che ride in maniera impostata
associated with mentalizing,
alla mentalizzazione,
somebody else is thinking.
which is completely boring
a una scannerizzazione noiosa
"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,
in quel momento
anything to do with you,
why those people are laughing.
quelle persone stanno ridendo.
at how people hear real and posed laughter
come cambia l'ascolto della risata
we ran with the Royal Society,
condotto con la Royal Society,
two questions.
due domande.
or posed do these laughs sound?
vere o impostate fossero.
and the posed laughs are shown in blue.
e quelle impostate in blu.
che c'è un rapido inizio.
and better at spotting real laughter.
nell'individuare le risate vere.
they can't really hear the difference.
non possono capire la differenza.
peak performance in this dataset
il picco della performance
late 30s and early 40s.
by the time you hit puberty.
la risata durante la pubertà.
by the time your brain has matured
quando il cervello è abbastanza maturo
throughout your entire early adult life.
anche durante l'età adulta.
not, what does the laughter sound like
in modo diverso la domanda,
or posed, but we say,
di distinguere le risate
make you want to laugh,
quanto la risata vi fa ridere,
we see a different profile.
vediamo un profilo diverso.
when you hear laughter.
when I had no idea what was going on.
del mio episodio d'infanzia.
than the posed laughs,
più contagiosa,
less contagious to you.
sempre meno sensibili.
really grumpy as we get older,
understand laughter better,
sempre di più di più la risata
hearing people laugh to want to laugh.
più soddisfazione.
lay assumptions are incorrect,
molte false convinzioni,
there's even more to laughter
we should look at,
da osservare,
people are phenomenally nuanced
le persone colgono anche le sfumature
set of studies coming out
a longitudinal study with couples.
uno studio longitudinale su coppie.
men and women, into the lab,
uomini e donne sposati
stressful conversations to have
so he can see them becoming stressed.
per vedere la reazione.
and he'll say to the husband,
that irritates you."
che ti irrita di tua moglie."
briefly, you and your partner --
more stressed as soon as that starts.
c'è un aumento di stress.
people become more stressed.
che può essere rilevato fisicamente.
who manage that feeling of stress
che hanno gestito lo stress
positive emotions like laughter,
e altri comportamenti positivi,
physically feeling better,
unpleasant situation better together,
stando insieme
in their relationship
più alti livelli di soddisfazione
at close relationships,
straordinariamente potente
their emotions together.
le loro emozioni insieme.
to show that we like each other,
per dimostrare loro che li apprezziamo:
feel better together.
insieme.
to be limited to romantic relationships.
si limiti alle relazioni romantiche.
going to be a characteristic
such as you might have with friends,
a relazioni di amicizia.
young men in the former East Germany
uomini nella vecchia Germania dell'Est
their heavy metal band,
per promuovere la loro band heavy metal.
and the mood is very serious,
l'atmosfera molto seria.
what happens in terms of laughter
quando entra in gioco la risata
and how that changes the mood.
e come cambia l'atmosfera.
He's got swimming trunks on,
Indossa il costume,
They are already laughing, hard.
is it's all very serious
è che tutto è molto serio
as soon as he doesn't go through the ice,
non appena non riesce a romperlo
and bone everywhere,
ovunque,
with him standing there going,
si fosse ferito e avesse detto,
I think this is broken,"
That would be stressful.
Sarebbe stressante.
with a visibly broken leg laughing,
una gamba visibilmente rotta, ridendo,
think we need to go to the hospital now,"
che dovremmo andare in ospedale ora."
embarrassing, difficult situation,
imbarazzante, difficile
actually enjoying there,
divertente, in cui ci divertiamo.
a really interesting use,
something like this happening
che accadde qualcosa del genere
on the ice in our underpants.
nel ghiaccio in mutande.
(Applausi)
a relative who was being a bit difficult,
un mio parente stava particolarmente male,
just before the whole thing started
prima che tutto avesse inizio,
that happened in a 1970s sitcom,
accaduta in una sitcom degli anni '70.
I don't know why I'm doing this,
perché lo stessi facendo.
something from somewhere
questa persona
together with me.
to find some reason we can do this.
spiegabile.
We're going to get through this.
Attraverseremo questo momento.
are doing this all the time.
in continuazione.
you don't even notice it.
da non farci caso.
how often they laugh,
when you laugh with people,
a really ancient evolutionary system
ad un sistema evolutivo antico
to make and maintain social bonds,
per creare e mantenere legami sociali,
to make ourselves feel better.
per farci sentire meglio.
it's a really ancient behavior
è un comportamento antico
and makes us feel better.
e farci sentire meglio.
quando si tratta di risate
but mammals. (Laughter)
che mammiferi. (Risate)
(Applausi)
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