Music IS The Space Between Notes - New Research on the Sounds of Silence
Music IS The Space Between Notes - New Research on the Sounds of Silence
The brain listens to the sounds of silence
New research published in the July 10, 2023 issue of PNAS shows that the brain processes silence as sound.
In “The Perception of Silence” address the question of whether silence is an absence of sound, or a “different kind of sound.” that can be genuinely perceived (not just cognitively inferred).
“We show that silences can “substitute” for sounds in event-based auditory illusions...
[S]ilences elicited temporal distortions perfectly analogous to their sound-based counterparts, suggesting that auditory processing treats moments of silence the way it treats sounds. Silence is truly perceived, not merely inferred.
Our results suggest that silence is truly heard, not merely inferred, introducing a general approach for studying the perception of absence.”
The presence of absence. The absence as presence. The silence between the notes. The shape formed by negative space. Beautiful, and not surprising.