According to a new study published in the magazine PLOS Biology, human screams can transmit many more things than fear, and are more acoustically diverse than previously thought.
Functional MRI Imaging
In the study, twelve participants were asked to vocalize positive and negative cries that could be triggered by various situations. A different group of individuals rated the emotional nature of the screams, classified the screams into different categories, and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while listening to the screams.
The results revealed six types of psychoacoustically distinct screams, indicating pain, anger, fear, pleasure, sadness, and joy.
Perhaps most surprising was that the listeners responded more quickly and accurately, and with greater neural sensitivity, to positive and non-alarming screams than to alarming screams. Specifically, the less alarming screams elicited more activity in many auditory and frontal brain regions.
According to the authors, these findings show that screams are more diverse in their communicative and signaling nature in humans than is often assumed.
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The news
Human screams not only communicate fear, but at least six different emotions
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.