Ten noises: from screeching to screaming-we hate' em!
It's all down to the brain, and our primative adaptive mechanisms! Of course!
The sounds we find least attractive and cause negative emotions include the cartoonesque fingernails on a blackboard, a fork scraping a glass, or a scream.
It's all down to the brain, and our primative adaptive mechanisms! Of course!
The sounds we find least attractive and cause negative emotions include the cartoonesque fingernails on a blackboard, a fork scraping a glass, or a scream.
The Journal of neuroscience has an article in its latest issue from Newcastle University & the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College, London. Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scrutinise brains of participants as they heard various sounds. Sensations of displeasure or disgust at a sound affects activity between the auditory and emotional aspects of the brain.
The auditory cortex and the amygdala interact intensely, and unpleasant sounds caused the amydala to become more active provoking a negative reaction that could form emotional memory. It appears the amygdala encodes the auditory stimulus with a certain value, and that in 'a complex and rapidly-changing environment this allows for sensory information to be extracted and processed efficiently'. The amygdala also assesses the mismatch in sounds between perceived and received reward as a result of the auditory information which may be one of the adaptive processes involved.
If you want to hear the sounds for yourself, Medical News Today has a sample of some of the sounds here: MNT article 251489.
Sounds such as a knife on a bottle appear to have a heightened response in the almond-shaped amygdala compared to applause, a baby laughing or water flowing. The negative-response sounds occur within a similar frequency of between 2,000-5,000 Hz.
The full top ten reads like this:
- Knife on a bottle
- Fork on a glass
- Chalk on a blackboard
- Ruler on a bottle
- Nails on a blackboard
- Female scream
- Anglegrinder
- Brakes on a bike squealing
- Baby crying
- Electric drill
The full text article is available here to read in the October 10 issue Journal of Neuroscience: 32(41) 14184-14192 'Features versus Feelings'.
Beyond just recognising which sounds have higher perceptions of displeasure and the effects on the brain, Professor Tim Griffiths who led the study, also suggests that this may lead to a greater understanding of emotional disorders and conditions such as tinnitis or migraine.
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