Screams Have Their Own Acoustic Signature.

• Position: SOUND - Brief article

The "acoustic signature" of screams has been identified in a study by New York University neuroscientists that points to the unique attributes of this form of expression, and suggests we are able to generate sounds reserved exclusively for signaling distress.

"Everybody screams and everybody has an intuition about what constitutes screams--that they are loud and high-pitched, but neither turns out to be quite correct," says senior author David Poeppel, professor in the Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science. "In fact, screams have their own acoustic niche separate from other sounds. While, like some sounds, they may be high-pitched and loud, screams are modulated in a particular way that sets them apart from the rest."

In the study, researchers identified the nature of a particular acoustic characteristic that is specific to screams. "Screams have...