Why Do People Scream?

We take so much for granted in the world.

Like why we scream.  I hadn’t given this a thought until I saw this discussed in a Time magazine news brief.

Time reported on new research in the journal Current Biology that suggests hearing a scream may activate the brain’s fear circuitry.  Normally, your brain takes a sound  and delivers it to a section of the brain dedicated to interpreting these sounds.  But screams seem to follow a different path.  They are sent from the ear directly to the amygdala, the brain’s fear processing warehouse.  In other words, screams activate the brain’s fear circuitry.  And the higher the sound variation from normal speech,  the more terrifying the scream.  So screaming not only conveys danger but also induces fear in the listener and heightens awareness for both screamer and listener of possible danger.

Isn’t science marvelous?

 

http://time.com/3956127/scream-screaming/?xid=newsletter-brief

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