Screaming is a universal sound that is designed to evoke a response. New research not only identifies what kind of sound can be defined as a “scream,” but it also pinpoints how the brain responds to it. While most people would characterize a scream as being loud and high-pitched, it is the “roughness” of the sound (how fast the sound changes in loudness) that is its defining characteristic. While speech patterns only have slight differences in loudness, screams can modulate very quickly. Researchers found that it is this “acoustic roughness” that activates the region of the brain (amygdala) that processes the fear response. The rougher the sound is, the more terrifying the brain interprets it as being.
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P.S. The research mentioned above suggests that alarm sounds can be made more effective by adding roughness that will accelerate the brain’s response.
