• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » The Screaming Brain

The Screaming Brain

July 17, 2015
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/150717_sciup_scream.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):

1A property called roughness gives human screams their fear-inducing quality Luc Amal
A property called roughness gives human screams their fear-inducing quality. (Luc Amal)

The science of screams. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

What makes this scream lame:

[scream #1]

…and this one convincing?

[scream #2]

In the journal Current Biology, NYU neuroscientist David Poeppel and his colleagues report that while both are the same pitch and loudness, the blood-curdling scream has a quality called “roughness”.

DAVID POEPPEL (New York University):

One clear difference is you go “ahhh” or you go “aaahhhh.”

HIRSHON:

He says rough sounds like that consist of many spikes of sound per second and this quality activates the brain’s primitive fear center.

POEPPEL:

You can show that the more roughness a sound has, the scarier it’s rated.

HIRSHON:

The study looked at both adult vocalizations and artificial alarms. Next up for the team, perhaps the most ear-splitting, nerve-jangling sound of them all:

[baby scream]

The cry of the baby. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

Read about the original research

Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Acoustics & Sound, Biology, Brain Science, Social & Behavioral Sciences
Previous Post: « Dreaming During Development
Next Post: Plankton Eyeball »

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

Recent Posts

House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket
Biologist E.O. Wilson with children
Diagram showing Earth's tilt

Copyright © 2022 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos