Why do people cry out in pain?

Have you ever wondered why humans cry out in pain? Studies show that nonverbal communication consists of activity patterns so familiar that we don’t always think about their purpose. It is an evolutionarily useful tool.

A 2003 study indicated that for some adults, expressions and vocalizations of pain lasted longer when people were around. This suggests that one of the purposes of Pain Cry, although apparently involuntary, may be to communicate dependency needs.

This year research published in the magazine current biology He suggested that hearing a scream could activate fear circuits in the brain, and act as a warning signal. The team found that screams are sent from the ear to the amygdala, the area responsible for processing fear.

“In the brain imaging portions of the experience, screaming activates the brain’s fear circuits. The amygdala is a nucleus in the brain that is particularly sensitive to information related to fear,” the researchers say.

This means that yelling is not, in nature, seen as just a sound, but rather as a stimulus to raise awareness. To better understand this, in the study, the team had volunteers listen for different alarm sounds.

The scientists found that people responded to the alarms in similar ways: the higher the alarms varied, the more frightening they were. This may be a clue to how our brains process the sounds of danger.

The conclusion is that a person screams not only to convey danger, but also to provoke fear in the listener and raise the awareness of both the screaming and the listener to respond to their environment.

source: long live scienceAnd the TeamAnd the current biology

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