Scientists Settle Ages-Old Debate: Silence Can Be Heard, Study Finds
Since the days of Aristotle, scientists and philosophers have pondered the age-old question of whether silence can actually be heard. After centuries of speculation, researchers from Johns Hopkins University in the US believe they have finally found the answer.
In a groundbreaking series of experiments, the team utilized a well-known auditory illusion called the one-is-more illusion, which tricks the brain into perceiving two discrete sounds as shorter than one single sound, even though the total duration remains the same.
Taking this concept a step further, the researchers replaced sounds with silence and discovered that the illusion still held true. Astonishingly, a single continuous silence appeared longer than two separate silences, despite both having the same overall duration.
“Silence, whatever it is, is not a sound – it’s the absence of sound,” explained Rui Zhe Goh, a graduate student in philosophy and psychology from Johns Hopkins University. “Surprisingly, what our work suggests is that nothing is also something you can hear.”
The team believes that because our brains react to silence in a similar manner as they do to sound in these illusions, we are indeed perceiving that absence of sound as if it were audible. This finding supports the notion that silence holds a sensory quality, confirming what Simon & Garfunkel famously sang about.
To test their hypothesis, the researchers enlisted a total of 1,000 participants across seven experiments. In addition to the one-is-more illusion, the team conducted similar tests involving partial silences and varying intervals between silences. Some experiments even incorporated background noises such as bustling restaurants and train stations to frame the silences.
Remarkably, the results remained consistent throughout all the experiments, indicating that silence is processed by the brain in the same way as sound. This study contributes to our expanding understanding of how our sense of hearing operates.
“The illusions and effects that appear to be unique to auditory processing of sound also apply to silences, implying that we truly hear absences of sound,” said Ian Phillips, a philosopher and psychologist at John Hopkins University.
While previous studies have shown the importance of silence in perceiving sounds, such as the pauses between words, this study is the first to provide concrete experimental evidence that silence itself can serve as a stimulus that the brain perceives.
Looking ahead, the team plans to investigate how we perceive silence when it is completely disconnected from sound, further exploring the nature of perfect silence. These findings could also have implications for the treatment of various hearing problems.
“Philosophers have long debated whether silence is something we can literally perceive, but there hasn’t been a scientific study directly addressing this question until now,” said Chaz Firestone, a cognitive scientist at John Hopkins University.
The results of this groundbreaking research have been published in the journal PNAS, shedding new light on the enigmatic phenomenon of silence.