Being Yelled At: Our Brain on Alert in a Flash

Summary: Researchers report our brain is on high alert while listening to voices, finding we respond much faster to vocal aggression than normal or happy voices. The reason, researchers say, could be that our attention is more focused on threatening voices to help us recognize the location of a potential threat.

Source: University of Geneva.

Sight and hearing are the two main sensory modalities allowing us to interact with our environment. But what happens within the brain when it perceives a threatening signal, such as an aggressive voice? How does it distinguish a threatening voice from the surrounding noise? How does it process this information? To answers these questions, researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, studied brain activity during the processing of various emotional voices. They discovered that we notice a voice much faster when it is considered threatening than when it is perceived as normal or happy. Our attention is more focused on threatening voices to enable us to clearly recognize the location of the potential threat. This study, published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, demonstrates the resources leveraged by our brain when we sense danger to allow for adequate survival behavior.

Sight and hearing are the two senses that allow human beings to detect threatening situations. Although sight is critical, it does not allow for a 360-degree coverage of the surrounding space – unlike hearing. “That’s why we are interested in how fast our attention responds to the different intonations of the voices around us and how our brain deals with potentially threatening situations,” explains Nicolas Burra, a researcher in the psychology section of the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences (FPSE) at UNIGE.

To examine the brain’s response to threats in the auditory environment, the researchers presented 22 short human voice sounds (600 milliseconds) that were neutral utterances or expressed either anger or joy. Using two loudspeakers, these sounds were presented to 35 participants while an electroencephalogram (EEG) measured electrical activity in the brain down to the millisecond. More specifically, the researchers focused on the electrophysiological components related to auditory attentional processing. “Each participant heard two sounds simultaneously: two neutral voices, one neutral and one angry voice, or one neutral and one happy voice. When they perceived anger or joy, they had to respond by pressing a key on a keyboard as accurately and quickly as possible,” explains Leonardo Ceravolo, researcher at UNIGE’s Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences. “We then measured the intensity of brain activity when attention is focused on the different sounds, as well as the duration of this focus before a return to the basic state,” he adds.

Our brain quickly differentiates angry from happy voices

Using data from the EEG, the researchers examined the appearance of a cerebral marker of auditory attention called N2ac. As Nicolas Burra explains, “When the brain perceives an emotional target sound, N2ac activity is triggered after 200 milliseconds. However, when it perceives anger, the N2ac is amplified and lasts longer, which is not the case for joy!”

woman in eeg cap
This is a participant equipped with the EEG to measure the electrical activity of the brain. NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to UNIGE.

Subsequently, after 400 milliseconds, our attention must disengage from the emotional vocal stimulus. At this moment, a cerebral marker of auditory attention, called LPCpc, intervenes. Interestingly enough, LPCpc activity is also stronger for angry than for happy voices. Why? “Anger can signal a potential threat, which is why the brain analyzes these kinds of stimuli for a longer time. In an auditory environment, this mechanism allows us to not become alarmed at the slightest potentially threatening noise or, conversely, to adopt the most appropriate behavior in case of danger. These extra milliseconds of attention are, therefore, crucial to the accurate interpretation of a threat in a complex auditory environment,” says Ceravolo.

This additional temporal cost was also evident in the participants’ response times. When they had to indicate that they perceived anger, it took them longer than when they did so for joy. In contrast, brain activity was enhanced in the case of angry stimuli. Does it sound conflicting? “No. The explanation is logical. As attention in the brain remains focused on the threatening sound, the motor response via the keyboard is delayed,” says Nicolas Burra.

In summary, this study demonstrated for the first time that in a few hundred milliseconds, our brain is sensitive to the presence of angry voices. This rapid detection of the source of a potential threat in a complex environment is essential, as it is “critical in crisis situations and a great advantage for our survival,” concludes Ceravolo.

About this neuroscience research article

Source: Nicolas Burra – University of Geneva
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to UNIGE.
Original Research: Open access research for “Early spatial attention deployment toward and away from aggressive voices” by Nicolas Burra, Dirk Kerzel, David Munoz Tord, Didier Grandjean, and Leonardo Ceravolo in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. Published November 9 2018.
doi:10.1093/scan/nsy100

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]University of Geneva”Being Yelled At: Our Brain on Alert in a Flash.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 7 December 2018.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/yelling-alert-brain-10311/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]University of Geneva(2018, December 7). Being Yelled At: Our Brain on Alert in a Flash. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved December 7, 2018 from https://neurosciencenews.com/yelling-alert-brain-10311/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]University of Geneva”Being Yelled At: Our Brain on Alert in a Flash.” https://neurosciencenews.com/yelling-alert-brain-10311/ (accessed December 7, 2018).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]


Abstract

Early spatial attention deployment toward and away from aggressive voices

Salient vocalizations, especially aggressive voices, are believed to attract attention due to an automatic threat detection system. However, studies assessing the temporal dynamics of auditory spatial attention to aggressive voices are missing. Using event-related potential markers of auditory spatial attention (N2ac and LPCpc), we show that attentional processing of threatening vocal signals is enhanced at two different stages of auditory processing. As early as 200 ms post-stimulus onset, attentional orienting/engagement is enhanced for threatening as compared to happy vocal signals. Subsequently, as early as 400 ms post-stimulus onset, the reorienting of auditory attention to the center of the screen (or disengagement from the target) is enhanced. This latter effect is consistent with the need to optimize perception by balancing the intake of stimulation from left and right auditory space. Our results extend the scope of theories from the visual to the auditory modality by showing that threatening stimuli also bias early spatial attention in the auditory modality. Attentional enhancement was only present in female and not in male participants.

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