Human Screams Alter Amygdala Fear Pathways

This study identifies an acoustical characteristic shared by screaming and alarms — an insight that might clarify how parental verbal abuse leads to later psychopathology.

Although studies have supported the role of verbal abuse in later psychopathology (NEJM JW Psychiatry Aug 2006 and Am J Psychiatry 2006; 163:993), little was known about the physiology and brain circuitry associated with hearing screaming. To study screams, investigators examined acoustical characteristics of screaming compared with normal speech and music in several experiments (N=10–21 participants).

Screaming was found to occur in an acoustical temporal spectrum called roughness; this spectrum differs from the ones in normal speech that encode information about sentence meaning and a speaker's sex. When asked to rate the pleasantness of sounds, participants perceived screaming as unpleasant, even when compared with normal speech of simila…

Reviewing Author

Barbara Geller, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Barbara Geller, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Human Screams Alter Amygdala Fear Pathways

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Reviewing Author