Sophie Scott: Why we laugh
Sophie Scott: De ce râdem
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
când am observat râsul.
I would've been about six.
făcând ceva neobişnuit:
doing something unusual,
şi chiuiau în gura mare.
laughing at, but I wanted in.
(Râsete)
going, "Hoo hoo!" (Laughter)
what they were laughing at
de pe vremea aceea,
care-ţi spuneau ce poţi şi ce nu poţi face
signs in toilets on trains
and could not do
about the English is, of course,
avem un simţ al umorului sofisticat.
sophisticated sense of humor.
understand anything of that.
Îmi păsa doar de râs.
I've come to care about it again.
is just play some examples
de râsete de oameni.
şi cât de primitive sunt.
people make and how odd that can be,
laughter is as a sound.
animalelor decât cu vorbitul.
than it is like speech.
The first one is pretty joyful.
Primul e chiar vesel.
where I'm just, like,
„Respiră puţin!”
like he's breathing out.
aşa râde el.
(Râsete)
(Laughter)
this is a human female laughing.
odd places in terms of making noises.
când râdem.
what is that?" in French.
în franceză.
I have no idea.
you have to look at a part of the body
să analizăm o anumită parte a corpului
don't normally spend much time looking at,
nu-i prea dau atenţie: cutia toracică.
dar o folosim tot timpul.
your ribcage all the time.
se numeşte respiraţie.
at the moment with your ribcage,
– muşchii dintre coaste –
the muscles between your ribs,
mărind şi micşorând cutia toracică.
and contracting your ribcage,
în jurul pieptului,
around the outside of your chest
asta e respiraţia.
at that movement,
movement, so that's breathing.
vă folosiţi respiraţia diferit.
completely differently.
something much more like this.
să împingem aerul afară.
movements of the ribcage
De asta putem vorbi.
that can do this.
au un inamic mortal,
has a mortal enemy,
încep să se contracte regulat
start to contract very regularly,
de fapt scoateţi aerul din voi.
sort of zig-zagging,
the air out of you.
of making a sound.
efectul e acelaşi: aerul e presat afară.
it's having the same effect.
se aude un sunet.
Ha! -- gives you a sound.
aveţi acele spasme care dau...
you can get these spasms,
these -- (Wheezing) -- things happening.
(Râsete)
(Râsete)
there isn't very much,
everything we think we know
to hear people to say
suntem singurele animale care râd.
are the only animals that laugh.
throughout the mammals.
dar a fost observat şi la şobolani
and well-observed in primates,
– la oameni, primate, şobolani –
ca gâdilatul.
with things like tickling.
and all mammals play.
şi toate mamiferele se joacă.
cu interacţiunea.
it's associated with interactions.
a lot of work on this,
more likely to laugh
mai probabil să râzi
than if you're on your own,
social, cum ar fi în conversaţie.
like conversation.
amintesc de comedii, umor şi glume.
"When do you laugh?"
about humor and they'll talk about jokes.
vezi că râd cu prietenii.
they're laughing with their friends.
hardly ever actually laughing at jokes.
nu râdem de fapt atât la glume,
that you understand them,
că suntem de acord cu ei,
part of the same group as them.
că ne place de ei sau că-i iubim.
that you like them.
iar râsul se ocupă de partea emoţională.
as talking to them,
of that emotional work for you.
has pointed out, as you can see here,
cum ați văzut la început,
funny laughs at the start,
găsit părinţii râzând,
when I found my parents laughing,
behaviorally contagious effect.
off somebody else if you know them.
by this social context.
ci are o componentă socială.
meaning of laughter
is different kinds of laughter,
diferitele feluri de râs
despre cum vocalizează oamenii,
about how human beings vocalize
two kinds of laughs that we have.
două feluri de râs.
for helpless, involuntary laughter,
râsului involuntar,
screaming about a silly song,
la un cântec stupid,
than some of that more polite
which isn't horrible laughter,
în care cineva comunică cu tine,
as part of their communicative act to you,
o alegere conştientă.
they are choosing to do this.
two different ways of vocalizing.
două moduri de a vocaliza.
unui sistem mai vechi
are part of an older system
like the speech I'm doing now.
precum vorbitul meu de acum.
are două rădăcini diferite.
might actually have two different roots.
in more detail.
recordings of people laughing,
care râd şi am făcut orice ca ei să râdă.
to make people laugh,
să producă râsul social.
to produce more posed, social laughter.
şi voi râdeţi fiindcă vă place de el
you like your friend,
the joke's all that.
a couple of those.
e real sau fals, involuntar sau voluntar?
this laughter is real laughter,
or more voluntary laughter?
Sophie Scott: Posed? Posed.
Fals.
all they had to do was record me
să mă uit la o prietenă care asculta ceva
something I knew she wanted to laugh at,
şi m-a pufnit râsul.
un râs real de unul fals.
are good at telling the difference
râd diferit când sunt gâdilaţi
quite similar with chimpanzees.
if they're being tickled
de gâdilat, diferit de râsul social.
something like that here,
being different from social laughter.
au ton mai ridicat.
They're higher in pitch.
cu o presiune mai mare din plămâni
from your lungs
than you could ever produce voluntarily.
atât de înalte când cânt.
pitch my voice that high to sing.
şi sunete fluierate.
contractions and weird whistling sounds,
e extrem de uşor şi uşor de recunoscut.
is extremely easy,
râsul de complezenţă sună un pic fals.
we might think it sounds a bit fake.
El e un indicator social important.
an important social cue.
to laugh in a lot of situations,
Alegem să râdem în multe situaţii.
– acel „ha ha ha ha ah" –
nasality in posed laughter,
if you were laughing involuntarily.
râdeţi involuntar.
these two different sorts of things.
cum răspunde creierul când auzim râsete.
to see how brains respond
să asculte râs real şi de complezenţă.
this is a really boring experiment.
real and posed laughs.
Mai erau şi alte sunete ca să-i distragem.
it was a study on laughter.
to distract them,
sunetele. Nu aveau nimic altceva de făcut.
is lying listening to sounds.
real și de complezență,
and when you hear posed laughter,
completely differently,
which lies in auditory cortex,
sunt ariile care răspund la râsul real.
more to the real laughs,
pe care nu le întâlniţi în alt context,
laughing involuntarily,
hear in any other context.
care se pare că sunt asociate
with greater auditory processing
la un nivel cerebral mai înalt.
de complezenţă se activează ariile roz,
laughing in a posed way,
associated with mentalizing,
responsabile de mentalizare,
somebody else is thinking.
– lucru plictisitor şi neinteresant –
which is completely boring
încerci să-ţi dai seama de ce râde.
"A ha ha ha ha ha,"
why they're laughing.
Mereu încercăm să-l înţelegem în context,
to understand it in context,
at that point in time,
nu are de-a face cu noi,
anything to do with you,
acei oameni.
why those people are laughing.
tipurile de râs în funcţie de vârstă.
at how people hear real and posed laughter
de Societatea Regală
we ran with the Royal Society,
two questions.
dacă sunt adevărate sau de complezenţă.
or posed do these laughs sound?
iar complezentele sunt albastre.
and the posed laughs are shown in blue.
mai pricepuţi în a recunoaşte râsul real.
and better at spotting real laughter.
they can't really hear the difference.
peak performance in this dataset
late 30s and early 40s.
by the time you hit puberty.
nu interpretaţi mereu corect râsul
by the time your brain has matured
adică la sfârşitul adolescenţei.
în perioada maturităţii timpurii.
throughout your entire early adult life.
not, what does the laughter sound like
nu cum ni se pare râsul,
or posed, but we say,
ci cât de mult de face să râzi,
make you want to laugh,
vedem ceva diferit.
we see a different profile.
vreţi să vă alăturaţi celor care râd.
when you hear laughter.
when I had no idea what was going on.
deşi habar n-aveam ce se-ntâmpla.
real e mai contagios decât cel fals,
than the posed laughs,
devine tot mai puţin molipsitor.
less contagious to you.
really grumpy as we get older,
understand laughter better,
râsul mai bine şi suntem mai pricepuţi,
râzând ca să râdeți.
hearing people laugh to want to laugh.
despre care avem presupuneri incorecte,
lay assumptions are incorrect,
there's even more to laughter
e mai mult decât emoţie socială exprimată,
we should look at,
people are phenomenally nuanced
fenomenal de multe nuanţe.
set of studies coming out
în laboratorul său din California:
a longitudinal study with couples.
bărbaţi şi femei,
men and women, into the lab,
stressful conversations to have
o conversaţie stresantă
so he can see them becoming stressed.
pe măsură ce se stresează.
and he'll say to the husband,
that irritates you."
– imaginaţi-vă pe voi cu partenerul –
briefly, you and your partner --
puţin mai stresată, imediat.
more stressed as soon as that starts.
people become more stressed.
who manage that feeling of stress
gestionează acel stres prin râs,
positive emotions like laughter,
nu doar că se destresează imediat,
gestionează situaţia împreună mai bine,
physically feeling better,
unpleasant situation better together,
cu nivel crescut de satisfacţie
in their relationship
râsul e un indicator foarte util
at close relationships,
their emotions together.
îşi reglează emoţiile împreună.
to show that we like each other,
că ne plăcem reciproc,
feel better together.
to be limited to romantic relationships.
doar la relaţiile romantice.
going to be a characteristic
de prietenie apropiate
such as you might have with friends,
din fosta Germanie de Est
young men in the former East Germany
their heavy metal band,
and the mood is very serious,
what happens in terms of laughter
când lucrurile o iau razna,
and how that changes the mood.
şi cum le schimbă dispoziţia.
Are slip, ia un prosop.
He's got swimming trunks on,
They are already laughing, hard.
Râd chiar tare.
is it's all very serious
până când el sare pe gheaţă
as soon as he doesn't go through the ice,
dar nici nu-s oase şi sânge peste tot,
and bone everywhere,
with him standing there going,
„Cred că mi-am rupt ceva"
I think this is broken,"
ar fi fost stresant.
That would be stressful.
cu piciorul rupt, râzând,
with a visibly broken leg laughing,
„Heinrich, hai la spital acum!",
think we need to go to the hospital now,"
de la o situaţie dureroasă, jenantă, grea,
pe care o vedem cu plăcere.
embarrassing, difficult situation,
actually enjoying there,
a râsului, care se-ntâmplă frecvent.
a really interesting use,
s-a întâmplat la înmormântarea lui tata.
something like this happening
Nu suntem canadieni.
on the ice in our underpants.
a relative who was being a bit difficult,
mai dificilă, mama era în apele ei
chiar înainte să înceapă totul,
just before the whole thing started
that happened in a 1970s sitcom,
dintr-o comedie din anii 1970
I don't know why I'm doing this,
că încerc din răsputeri
something from somewhere
together with me.
to find some reason we can do this.
să găsesc un motiv să facem asta.
Vom fi în regulă.
We're going to get through this.
O faceţi atât de des că nici nu observaţi.
are doing this all the time.
you don't even notice it.
how often they laugh,
when you laugh with people,
a really ancient evolutionary system
au creat și menţinut legături sociale,
to make and maintain social bonds,
to make ourselves feel better.
pentru ca să ne simţim bine.
it's a really ancient behavior
e un comportament ancestral
and makes us feel better.
şi ne face să ne simţim mai bine.
tu şi cu mine suntem simple mamifere.
but mammals. (Laughter)
(Aplauze)
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