The Science of Screaming

Karen Perta – karen.perta@elmhurst.edu

Instagram: @karenperta
Elmhurst University, Elmhurst, IL, 60126, United States

Zhaoyan Zhang, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
Donna Erickson, Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, United States.
Ryoko Hayashi, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan.
Toshiyuki Sadanobu, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.

Popular version of 1pSC9 – Physiologic and acoustic characteristics of the angry scream
Presented at the 189th ASA Meeting
Read the abstract at https://eppro02.ativ.me/web/index.php?page=Session&project=ASAASJ25&id=3983050

–The research described in this Acoustics Lay Language Paper may not have yet been peer reviewed–

Most people can recall a day so bad that ended with screaming into a pillow. Emotional vocalization is a critical part of human communication. People scream when having fun at sporting events and theme parks, for safety, or to be heard in noisy environments. However, not all screaming and yelling is the same. Some may lose their voice after one night at a concert; others can protest on the picket lines for days without a problem. Why is this?

The purpose of this study is to analyze and compare angry, emotional screaming with trained, “healthy” yelling using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and acoustic measures. The MRI shows movements inside of the vocal tract so we can understand exactly how these sounds are created. In this study, a single vocally trained female participant produced angry screaming versus “healthy” belting. Here is a look inside the vocal tract during these sounds:

Figure 1. MRI images of Scream versus Belt (courtesy of authors).

Acoustic measures help characterize the differences between the sounds and provide further insight into how they are produced. Both MRI and acoustic analyses help determine the features that are harmful to the vocal folds versus the features that allow the voice to be heard safely. Here is a power spectrum view that shows frequency (x-axis) and intensity (y-axis) of the sounds as one snapshot in time:

Figure 2. Power spectrum of Scream versus Belt (courtesy of authors).

Based on the MRI measures, we determined that Scream was produced with 1) the highest position of the larynx 2) the largest mouth opening 3) the smallest throat space. Belt was produced with 1) a high larynx position though to a less extreme degree 2) a smaller mouth opening 3) more open space in the throat. Compared to Belt, Scream was also produced with an extremely high pitch – twice that of Belt.

During Scream, the tight throat space led to prolonged contact and strong compression of the vocal folds. This allowed Scream to produce higher intensity (stronger harmonic peaks in the spectrum) at high frequencies (above 6kHs) in Scream as compared to Belt. However, this high intensity production came at the cost of vocal fold injury. The Scream caused the participant to develop small vocal fold lesions that took about two weeks to resolve:

Figure 3. Participant vocal fold lesions following scream (courtesy of authors).

In conclusion, Scream is a primitive vocalization that is produced with a very constrictive action that is similar to swallowing. During swallowing, the vocal tract and vocal folds squeeze and compress in order to keep food and liquid from going into the airway. In contrast, Belt is a learned, trained behavior that is less constrictive and “overrides” innate tendencies for squeezing the vocal tract and pressing the vocal folds. During screaming, the highly constrictive actions of the vocal tract put extra strain and force on the vocal folds that contribute to vocal fold injury. Though it may take some practice, safe yelling should not be tight, feel painful, or cause voice loss. Use caution. Happy yelling!

A general method to obtain clearer images at a higher resolution than theoretical limit

Jian-yu Lu – jian-yu.lu@ieee.org
X (Twitter): @Jianyu_lu
Instagram: @jianyu.lu01
Department of Bioengineering, College of Engineering, The University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, 43606, United States

Popular version of 1pBAb4 – Reconstruction methods for super-resolution imaging with PSF modulation
Presented at the 186 ASA Meeting
Read the abstract at https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0026777

–The research described in this Acoustics Lay Language Paper may not have yet been peer reviewed–

Imaging is an important fundamental tool to advance science, engineering, and medicine, and is indispensable in our daily life. Here we have a few examples: Acoustical and optical microscopes have helped to advance biology. Ultrasound imaging, X-ray radiography, X-ray computerized tomography (X-ray CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), gamma camera, single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT), and positron emission tomography (PET) have been routinely used for medical diagnoses. Electron and scanning tunneling microscopes have revealed structures in nanometer or atomic scale, where one nanometer is one billionth of a meter. And photography, including the cameras in cell phones, is in our everyday life.

Despite the importance of imaging, it was first recognized by Ernest Abbe in 1873 that there is a fundamental limit known as the diffraction limit for resolution in wave-based imaging systems due to the diffraction of waves. This effects acoustical, optical, and electromagnetic waves, and so on.

Recently (see Lu, IEEE TUFFC, January 2024), the researcher developed a general method to overcome such a long-standing diffraction limit. This method is not only applicable to wave-based imaging systems such as ultrasound, optical, electromagnetic, radar, and sonar; it is in principle also applicable to other linear shift-invariant (LSI) imaging systems such as X-ray radiography, X-ray CT, MRI, gamma camera, SPECT, and PET since it increases image resolution by introducing high spatial frequencies through modulating the point-spread function (PSF) of an LSI imaging system. The modulation can be induced remotely from outside of an object to be imaged, or can be small particles introduced into or on the surface of the object and manipulated remotely. The LSI system can be understood with a geometric distortion corrected optical camera in the photography, where the photo of a person will be the same or invariant in terms of the size and shape if the person only shifts his/her position in the direction that is perpendicular to the camera optical axis within the camera field of view.

Figure 1 below demonstrates the efficacy of the method using an acoustical wave. The method was used to image a passive object (in the first row) through a pulse-echo imaging or to image wave source distributions (in the second row) with a receiver. The best images obtainable under the Abbe’s diffraction limit are in the second column, and the super-resolution (better than the diffraction limit) images obtained with the new method are in the last column. The super-resolution images had a resolution that was close to 1/3 of the wavelength used from a distance with an f-number (focal distance divided by the diameter of the transducer) close to 2.

Figure 1. This figure was modified in courtesy of IEEE (doi.org/10.1109/TUFFC.2023.3335883).

Because the method developed is based on the convolution theory of an LSI system and many practical imaging systems are LSI, the method opens an avenue for various new applications in science, engineering, and medicine. With a proper choice of a modulator and imaging system, nanoscale imaging with resolution similar to that of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) is possible even with visible or infrared light.