--- title: Screams and Screaming: Scientists Now Know Why We Scream description: Your brain processes shrieks differently from speech, a new study finds canonical: https://time.com/3956127/scream-screaming/ author: Tanya Basu article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-16T16:00:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:06.275Z article:section: Health og:title: Scientists Now Know Why People Scream og:description: Your brain processes shrieks differently from speech, finds a new study og:url: https://time.com/3956127/scream-screaming/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1002666c9be75dd7/69885b030b72e3ade96e4edd/scream-science-why.jpg?branch=production&width=523&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 523 og:image:height: 294 og:image:alt: scream og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scientists Now Know Why People Scream twitter:description: Your brain processes shrieks differently from speech, finds a new study twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1002666c9be75dd7/69885b030b72e3ade96e4edd/scream-science-why.jpg?branch=production&width=523&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scientists Now Know Why People Scream > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: How $1,000 Could Help Your Health [Watch (HLS stream): How $1,000 Could Help Your Health](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EILRa37f.m3u8) (2:01)  _Published 2014-08-22. From acupuncture to yoga, $1,000 can go a long way to improving your health._  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Jul 16, 2015 4:00 PM UTC  Close-up of a couple shouting, Kiev, Ukraine Close-up of a couple shouting, Kiev, Ukraine Hans Neleman / Getty Images  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Jul 16, 2015 4:00 PM UTC A baby wails upon an airplane’s liftoff, a person shrieks when he stumbles upon something shocking, a kid throws a tantrum because she wants to get her way—people scream in reaction to all kinds of situations. But exactly _why_ we scream has remained a mystery. Now, new [research](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.06.043) published in the journal _Current Biology_ suggests that hearing a scream may activate the brain’s fear circuitry, acting as a cautionary signal. Scream science is a new area of study, so David Poeppel, a professor of psychology and neural science at New York University, and his co-authors collected an array of screams from YouTube, films and 19 volunteer screamers who screamed in a lab sound booth. (This last collection method, by the way, was a highlight for Poeppel, who said he found listening to and judging screams an amusing break from the monotony of lab work.) The researchers first measured the sound properties of screams versus normal conversation. They measured the scream’s volume and looked at how volunteers responded behaviorally to screams. They then looked at brain images of people listening to screams and saw something they found fascinating—screams weren’t being interpreted by the brain the way normal sounds were. Normally, your brain takes a sound you hear and delivers it to a section of your brain dedicated to making sense of these sounds: What is the gender of the speaker? Their age? Their tone? Screams, however, don’t seem to follow that route. Instead, the team discovered that screams are sent from the ear to the amygdala, the brain’s fear processing warehouse, says Poeppel. “In brain imaging parts of the experiment, screams activate the fear circuitry of the brain,” he says. “The amygdala is a nucleus in the brain especially sensitive to information about fear.” That means screams are inherently considered not just sound but a trigger for heightened awareness. From these screams, Poeppel and his team mapped “roughness,” an acoustic description for how fast a sound changes in loudness. While normal speech modulates between 4 and 5 Hz in sound variation, screams spike between 30 and 150 Hz. The higher the sound variation, the more terrifying the scream is perceived. Poeppel and his team had volunteers listen to different alarm sounds and found people responded to alarms with similar variations: The more the alarms varied at higher rates, the more terrifying they were judged to be. That huge variation in scream roughness is a clue to how our brains process danger sounds, Poeppel says. Screaming serves not only to convey danger but also to induce fear in the listener and heighten awareness for both screamer and listener to respond to their environment. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] $ 1, 000 can really put you on the road to good health, or at least to better health. A lot of workers say that they're really stressed, unless productive. But half of workers say that stress makes them less productive at work. And there are a lot of studies that show that people who are more stressed have higher medical bills. And that makes sense. If you are stressed you may miss more work. You may go, go to doctor more often. So if you can invest $ 1000, you can really improve your health and lower your own costs. Yoga is a great way to reduce stress. It helps you with deep breathing, relaxation exercises. And a mindfulness that can really reduce your tension. Yoga classes cost about $ 15 to $ 20 each, at, that would get you doing downward dog about twice a week for six months. Acupuncture is another great way to reduce stress. It may be covered by your health insurance, so check that first. If not, acupuncture sessions cost about $ 16 to $ 120. Modern exercise has been proven as a great way to reduce stress. To incorporate it on a regular basis in your busy life, consider riding your bike to and from work. Or, taking a bike ride when you get home from work in the evening. Now, a good bike can cost you $ 1000. But think of it as a long- term investment, a good bike will last you many. If you have 10 thousand dollars, there's a lot you can do to invest in your health. A personal trainer, may give you the motivation you need to exercise, that you might not be able to do on your own. That costs you about 50 dollars a session, which could give you about 100 sessions, that you could spread out over two years. Another great way to. T find someone to motivate you is to consult a nutritionist. A first- time session with a nutitionist will cost about $ 150. But, if you wanna do follow- up sessions, to create say a health plan to see how you're doing, that'll cost you about $ 100. See if your health insurance may cover that, as well. 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