尖叫声会对大脑造成什么影响？为何让人难以忍受？｜科学60秒

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2023-08-10 14:08

尖叫的秘密

“啊！”@Unsplash

到底是什么让刺耳的尖叫声令人无法忽视呢？这关乎尖叫声对我们的大脑做了什么。根据《当代生物学》（Current Biology）杂志上的一项研究，人类尖叫的声学特性能刺激大脑控制恐惧的神经回路。

从飞过头顶的飞机到簇生脚边的各种生物，我们清醒着的每一刻都被噪音包围，但是一声发自肺腑的哭喊可以打破这一切。尖叫声有什么特别的？

为了寻求解答，研究人员准备了一份来自YouTube视频、流行电影和受试者的尖叫样本。[威廉尖叫]如果这声尖叫听起来很熟悉，那是因为这是著名的“威廉尖叫”（Wilhelm Scream）。这是一个普通的音效，从《兔八哥》（Bugs Bunny）到《星球大战》（Star Wars），很多地方都能听到。

研究人员分析了各种尖叫声的声学特征。他们发现这些声音不仅很大，而且特别粗糙，也就是说，它们的频率变化很快。正常的说话声相对平滑，频率范围仅在4~5赫兹（每秒的周期）之间，但是尖叫声……[查看全文]

What All the Screaming Is about

[Scream sound]

Got your attention? Thought so. But what is it about a piercing shriek that really turns our heads? It's what it does to our brains. The acoustical properties of the human scream poke at the neural circuits that control fear. That's according to a study in the journal Current Biology. [Luc H. Arnal et al, Human Screams Occupy a Privileged Niche in the Communication Soundscape]

Our every waking moment is filled with noise, from planes flying overhead to various creatures scrambling underfoot. But a heartfelt cry can cut through all that. So what's so special about the sound of a screech?

To find out, researchers prepared a sampler of screams from YouTube videos, popular films and excited volunteers. [Wilhelm Scream sound] If that screech sounded familiar, that's because it's the famous Wilhelm Scream, a stock sound effect heard in everything from Bugs Bunny to Star Wars.

The scientists analyzed the acoustical characteristics of the various screams. And they found these alarming sounds are not only loud, they're particularly rough. That is, they rapidly change in frequency. Normal speech is relatively smooth, with frequencies ranging only between four and five Hertz, or cycles per second. But a shriek can...[full transcript]