It turns out that the brain perceives "silence" in the same way as it perceives sound.

2023年07月17日

1952年、アメリカの音楽家ジョン・ケージが「4'33」を発表した。これは4分33秒間、音を立てずに「静寂」を聴かせるというセンセーショナルな作品だった。以来、この作品の是非は広く議論されてきた。しかし、その芸術的な良し悪しにかかわらず、「静寂に耳を傾ける」というケージの解釈は科学的に正しいと思われる。(English) In 1952, the American musician John Cage published "4'33". This was a sensational work in which the audience listened to "silence" for 4 minutes and 33 seconds without making a sound. The pros and cons of the piece have been widely debated since then. Still, regardless of its artistic merit, Cage's interpretation of "listening to silence" seems scientifically correct.

It turns out that the brain perceives "silence" in the same way as it perceives sound.

In 1952, the American musician John Cage published "4'33".

This was a sensational work in which the audience listened to "silence" for 4 minutes and 33 seconds without making a sound.

The pros and cons of the piece have been widely debated since then. Still, regardless of its artistic merit, Cage's interpretation of "listening to silence" seems scientifically correct.

Johns Hopkins University (JHU) researchers recently showed that our brains perceive silence and sound.

Silence is not just the absence of sound. We seem to be "listening".

Details of the research were published in the journal PNAS on 10 July 2023.

Do you hear "silence" as well as sound?

People talk, phones ring, cars honk and so on.

On the other hand, there are many moments when we encounter silence, such as when a conversation breaks up or when we visit a shrine.

But is silence perceived in the same way as sound?

On the one hand, one might think: "Since silence is a state without sound, there is no way to perceive it. On the other hand, " Since silence is recognised, it is perceived.

Chaz Firestone, one of the lead researchers and an expert in psychology and brain science, said:

"This question has been debated for centuries, mainly by philosophers, but has never been studied experimentally by scientists."

So we asked whether the brain treats silence like it treats sound in general.

If we respond to silence the same way we perceive sound, this would be evidence that we literally "hear silence".

So the research team decided to use sound illusion experiments to test this.

It's called "The One-is-More Illusion".

Try the "Listen to Silence" Experiment

What is it like to experiment with "The One-is-More Illusion"?

This is a phenomenon where if you hear one long beep and two beeps of the same length, the first will sound longer. (You can experience this illusion by playing the audio file below from 42 seconds on)

The team came up with the idea of replacing this beep with "silence" and experimented with it.

He thought: "If the same illusion occurs in silence, then the brain perceives and processes silence in the same way as sound information".

It's hard to explain in words, so it might be quicker to experience it.

* You can hear the same audio sample used in the illusion experiment in the video below.

https://nazology.net/archives/129419/2

The content of the video is as follows.

You are now sitting in a restaurant, surrounded by all kinds of noise.

There are two short periods of silence (about 48 seconds) and one (about 55 seconds).

Which silence lasts longer?

https://youtu.be/nCRosndUfMc

When I tested this on about 1,000 people, most said, "I feel that one silence is much longer,'' even though the silence is the same.

If you listen to it, you might have the same impression.

This result shows that the illusion, which scientists previously thought only occurred in the perception of sound, also occurs when silence is substituted.

10)

In other words, it is thought that our brains perceive and process silence the same way as sound information.

Commenting on the results, Ian Phillips of the same team said: "While this illusion was unique to the auditory processing of sound, silence produced the same result, suggesting that we hear the absence," he said.

11)

"These findings provide a new way to study the perception of absence (of stimuli such as silence)," say the researchers.

In the future, the team will look more closely at how much people hear silence in natural everyday environments.

In addition to the absence of sound, the team also wants to investigate how people perceive the loss of visual information and the lack of people.

By the way, here is a video of a "4'33" performance composed by John Cage.

https://youtu.be/JTEFKFiXSx4

Can you hear the music of silence?