Sophie’s talk outlines the extraordinary properties of brains, their evolution and their processing abilities. She discusses how form and function interact between brains, bodies and behaviour across a range of animals, before addressing some of the unique capabilities of the human brain. Professor Sophie Scott CBE is Director of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London . She studies the neurobiology of human vocal communication, from speech and sound to social interactions and non verbal emotional expressions, such as laughter. Sophie gave the Royal Institution Christmas lectures in 2017, and was awarded the Michael Faraday prize by the Royal Society in 2021. Her TED Talks have attracted over 6 million views online. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx