Among the Aztecs’ most chilling artifacts are the “death whistles,” clay instruments shaped like human skulls that emit a sound similar to a scream.
New research reveals that these whistles not only terrified listeners in ancient times, but also have a profound effect on the human brainincreasing states of alert and fear.
The new study, this month in the journal Communications Psychology, explored the impact of these sounds on modern listeners, finding their ability to trigger negative emotional responses and greater neural activity in the auditory cortex.
Research participants described the sounds as “scary” e “aversive”, matching the purpose of using whistles in Aztec rituals and wars.
The whistles, dated between 1250 and 1521 AD, are often found in the tombs of victims of human sacrifice. Experts speculate that its shrill tones were used in ceremonial contexts, possibly to imitate the winds of Mictlan, the Aztec underworld, or to invoke Ehecatl, the wind god who is believed to have created humans from the bones of the dead.
These sounds may have been intended instill fear in victims of sacrifices or admiration to those who attended the ceremonies.
The psychoacoustic experiments carried out in the study revealed that the brain perceives sound as both natural and artificial, creating a feeling of ambiguity that captures mental attention. This complex reaction involves lower-order auditory processing and higher-order cognitive systems, amplifying the emotional impact of sound.
Researchers, according to , suggest that this may have been deliberately exploited during Aztec ceremonies to evoke strong psychological responses.
