Study shows people can hear ‘sound of silence’

Silence can be ‘screaming’ in a few extremely uncomfortable situations, especially when that silence is shared with other unknown people. According to a new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, there is the ‘sound of silence’ and can be heard by all – and it’s not a reference to the constantly buzzing sound or “Sound of Silence” by American duo Simon & Garfunkel.

To reach the conclusion, a team of scientists experiment with a group of participants, inspired by an illusion created to deceive the human brain.. For example, scientists place two types of shorter, separate tones, followed by a single, long tone; Although it is the same sound, participants think they are different sounds.

In the study, the researchers recruited 1,000 people to participate in seven experiments, including the aforementioned illusion and other similar tests. To test the participants, background sounds were played, such as noise from restaurants, train stations, among other sounds; interspersed with variations of silence.

Other research suggests that silence may play an important role in human perception of sound, such as the silence present during pauses in a conversation.

“Are we just hearing voices? Or can we hear the silence too? These questions are the subject of a secular philosophical debate between the two camps: perceptual view (we literally hear silence) and cognitive view (only we judge or infer silence). Here, we take an empirical approach to resolving this theoretical debate. In the study, we show that silences can “substitute” sounds in event-based auditory illusions.

Sound of silence

After analyzing the data, the scientists note that the effects were the same across all experiments: participants perceived the silence as if they had heard a real sound, based on illusions created by other sounds.. It is as if the ear does not hear the silence itself, but the activation of the silence.

According to philosopher and psychologist Ian Philips of Johns Hopkins University, the study suggests that this illusion only affects the auditory process and therefore the human brain hears the ‘absence of sound’.

In any case, the team notes that it is necessary to continue to study the issue in order to study the issue. better understanding people’s perception of silence. The study was published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Silence, whatever it is, is not a sound, it’s the absence of a sound. Surprisingly, our work shows that nothing is something you can hear,” said Rui, a philosophy and psychology graduate student at Johns Hopkins University. Zhe Goh.

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